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942.23019 
B788C 
1315362 


M.L 


OENfiAUOGY  COi-UECTION 


3  1833  00730  7942 


6a 


I 


THE 


THE   ABBEY,   ROOD   OF   GRACE,    AND   ABBOTS; 
THE  CLERGY;    THE  CHURCH,    MONUMENTS    AND  REGISTERS; 

INCLUDING   AN   ACCOUNT    OF 

THE    WIAT    FAMILY,' 


AND    OF    THE 


TRIAL  ON  PENENDEN   HEATH  IN    1076. 

Wiith  Jllluatrations. 


J.  CAVE-BROWNE,  M.A., 

[VICAR    OF     DETLING,    KENT.] 

AUTHOR    OF    "LAMBETH    PALACE   AND    ITS    ASSOCIATIONS, 
"all   saints'   church,    MAIDSTONE,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


PRINTED  FOE    THE  AUTHOR 
BY    E.    J.    DICKINSON,    HIGH   STREET,    jMAIDSTONE. 

1892. 


TOPOGRAPHICAL     WORKS, 

"  '  By  the  same  Author, 

FKOM    WHOM    COPIES    MAY    BE    OBTAINED. 


LAM'BETH  PALACE  and  its  Associations  :  with  Illustrations,  and 
■   art  Introduction  by  the  late  Archbishop  Tait,  8vo.,  10s. 

The   History   of    the     PARISH    CHURCH    of    ALL     SAINTS', 
MAIDSTOXE,  with  Illustrations,  8vo.,  7s.  6d. 

The  History  of  BRASTED,  its  ilANOR,  PARISH,  and  CHURCH, 
3s    6d. 

DETLIXG    IN    DAYS    GONE    BY  :    a   History   of  the   PARISH 
CHURCH,  3s.  6d. 

The     STORY     OF     HOLLINGBOURNE   :     its     CHURCH     and 
CLERGY,   with  Illustrations,  8vo.,  3s.  6d. 


1315362 

TKODUCTION 


THE  attempt  to  resuscitate  the  "dead  past" — to 
unroll  the  shroud  with  which  for  eight  hundred 
years  Time  has  enveloped  a  spot  so  historic  as  Penenden 
Heath — or  to  re-people  with  its  former  occupants  an 
Abbey  of  which  naught  remains  but  ruined  walls  and 
vague  tradition — will  probably  be  denounced  by  some 
as  a  rash  and  presumptuous  venture  on  the  part  of  one 
with  so  few  qualifications  for  such  a  task. 

How  far  the  attempt  has  been  a  partial  success,  or  an 
utter  failure,  he  must  leave  his  readers  to  judge. 

He  will  only  say  that  it  has  been  from  no  lack  of 
laborious  research,  or  of  ready  sympathising  help  from 
his  many  friends,  if  he  has  failed  to  bring  out  some 
incidents  of  history  unknown  or  forgotten,  and  to  present 
some  that  may  be  old  and  well  known  in  fresh  combina- 
tions and  in  a  new  light. 

In  this,  as  in  former  efforts  to  clothe  local  scenes 
with  fresh  interest,  the  Author  has  had  the  treasures  of 
Lambeth  Library,  the  Canterbury  Chapter  Archives,  the 
British  Museum,  the  Kecord  Office,  the  College  of  Arms, 
and  the  Literary  Department  of  Somerset  House,  all 
placed  freely  at  his  disposal,  for  which  he  desires  to  tender 
his  very  grateful  acknowledgments.  If  he  may  presume 
to  single  out  any  of  the  Officials  of  these  Institutions 
to  whom  he  is  indebted  for  valuable  help,  he  would  name 
Dr.  J.  Brigstocke  Shepperd,  the  Curator  of  the  Canterbury 


IV.  INTRODUCTION. 

Chapter  MSS.  ;  W.  de  Gray  Bircli,  Esq.,  F.S.A.,  of  the 
MSS.  Department  of  the  British  Museum,  and  C.  T. 
Martin,  Esq.,  F.S.A.,  of  the  Record  Office. 

To  the  Earl  of  Romney  are  his  thanks  especially  due 
for  permission  to  see  and  make  use  of  the  highly  inter- 
esting Volume  of  the  '' WIAT  MSS.''  in  his  possession; 
(from  whence  he  has  been  able  to  obtain  much  little 
known  and  unpublished  matter  for  Chapter  VII.)  ; 
also,  to  the  Hon.  Robert  Marsham,  F.S.A.,  for  valuable 
information  respecting  his  family  ;  and  to  his  artistic 
friend  and  neighbour,  whose  pen  has  contributed  many 
of  the  Illustrations  in  this  volume. 

The  principal  printed  authorities  referred  to,  besides 
the  more  recent  publications  known  as  the  "  Rolls' 
Series,"  have  of  course  been  "  Lambarde's  Perambu- 
lations," "  Philipott's  Villare  Cantianum,"  "  Hasted's 
History  of  Kent"  (8vo.  Ed.),  and  the  interesting  little 
brochure  entitled  "Notes  on  Boxley,"  which  emanated 
a  few  years  ago  from  Boxley  Vicarage. 

All  MS.  and  other  sources  of  information  he  has 
endeavoured  to  acknowledge  in  their  respective  places, 
giving  brief  extracts  in  the  footnotes,  and,  where 
desirable,  fuller  quotations  in  the  Appendix. 


The    Arms    of 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I.     Pages  1—13. 

The  Parish  :  Its  Boundaries  ;  its  Manors— Vinter's,  "Wevering,  Newnliam  ; 
the  Abbey,  restored  to  the  Wiats  ;  its  successive  owners  ;  Park  House 
(Boxley),  Park  House  (Maidstone),  Boxley  House. 

CHAPTER   II.     Pages  24—26. 

Penenden  Heath,  the  scene  of  the  great  Trial  between  Archbishop  Lan- 
franc  and  Odo,  Bishop  of  Baieux  ;  the  Members  of  the  Court :  the 
Manors  recovered  from  the  Bishop  and  his  Knights  ;  Wat  Tyler  and 
Jack  Cade  rally  their  forces  here,  and  Sir  Thomas  "Wiat. 

CHAPTER   III.     Pages  27—67. 

The  Abbey  :  its  foundation  ;  St.  Andrew's  Chapel  ;  the  probable  arrange- 
ment of  the  Abbey  buildings,  its  Chapels,  and  its  side  Altars  ;  the 
bequests  of  land  for  its  endowment  ;  the  Seal  of  the  Abbey  ;  the 
foundation  of  the  Roberts-bridge  Priory  ;  the  Visit  of  Edward  II., 
and  of  Cardinal  Campeggio,  and  Archbishop  Warham  ;  Hugo  Cun- 
davena's  complaint;  the  Abbey  a  "Retreat"  and  also  a  "Refor- 
matory" for  Benedictines  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury;  the  Rood  of 
Grace — its  introduction — Lambarde's  account  of  it  ;  Alien  Priories  first 
dissolved  ;  the  general  Suppression  under  Henry  VIII.  ;  the  Exposure 
of  the  Rood  of  Grace  ;  the  Romanist  view  of  it. 

CHAPTER   IV.     Pages  68—82. 

The  Abbots  ;  Abbot  AValter  buries  Thomas  a'  Becket  ;  Abbot  Robert  sup- 
ports the  King  against  the  Canterbury  Monks  ;  sent  to  discover  the 
place  of  Richard  I.'s  imprisonment;  Abbot  John  resigns  the  Abbey 
for  the  Vicarage  ;  his  successor,  Abbot  John  Dobbs,  surrenders  the 
Abbey,  and  declares  his  ignorance  of  any  trickery  in  the  Rood  of  Grace  ; 
he  is  pensioned. 


CHAPTER   V.     Pages  83—105. 

The  Clergy  :  The  Rectors,  and  eventually  the  Vicars  :  the  Endowments  ; 
the  Terriers  ;  Monastic  lands  become  Tithe  Free  ;  the  Vicarage,  its 
successive  enlargements. 


CHAPTER  yi.     Pages   106—132. 

The  Church  :  Its  former  Chapels  ;  its  general  character  ;  the  Tower  ;  and 
Entrance  Porch  ;  its  Windows  and  Monuments. 


CHAPTER   VII.     Pages  133—151. 

The  WiAT  Family  :  Sir  Henry  comes  to  AUington  Castle  ;  his  adventure 
with  the  Cat  ;  Lady  Wiat's  treatment  of  the  Abbot  of  Boxley  ;  Sir 
Thomas's  trip  to  Rome,  "the  Maze  and  the  Minotaur;"  encounter 
with  the  young  lion  ;  Sir  Thomas  the  Younger  ;  his  night  adventure 
with  the  Earl  of  Surrey  ;  his  Insurrection  ;  Sir  John  Finch,  of  Fordham  ; 
George  Sandys,  the  Poet,  and  his  summer-house  ;  the  Boxley  Abbey 
property  passes  to  the  Marsham  family. 


CHAPTER   VIII.     Pages  152—187. 

The  Registers,  from  1558  to  1809. 


APPENDIX.     Pages  189—215. 


INDEX.     Pages  217—225. 


APPENDIX. 


A.  The   "Boxley"  entry  in   "Domesday  Book,"  p.  189. 

B.  The  AVill  of  Stephen  ]\Iason,  leaving  Wevering  Manor  to  the  Vintners' 

Conijiany,  p.  190. 

C.  William  the  Conqueror's  Summons  to  Penenden  Heath,  p.  191. 
C.a.  Eadmer's  Account  of  the  Trial,  p.  192. 

D.  Bp.  Ernulph's  full   description   of  the  Trial  (Rochester    Register),   pp. 

193-198. 

E.  Further  particulars,  in  the  Cottonian  MS.,  p.  198. 

F.  Edward  II. 's  Grant   to    the   City   of   London   to   choose   their   Mayor, 

p.  200. 

F.a.  Stoke-at-Hoo  granted  to  the  Abbey  by  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  p.  201. 

G.  Hugo  Cundavena's  complaint  against  the  Abbot  of  Boxley,  202. 

G.a.  Licence  granted  by  the  Prior  of  Chr.  Ch.,  Canterbury,  to  a  Monk  to 
retire  to  Robertsbridge,  p.  203. 

G.b.  The  Abbot  of  Boxley  admits  an  apostate  Monk  from  Chr.  Ch., 
Canterbury,  to  stricter  discipline  at  the  Abbey,  p.  204. 

G.c.  John  Hoker's  Letter  about  the  Rood  of  Grace,  p.  205. 

PI.  Thomas  a'  Becket's  Burial  by  Abbot  of  Boxley  ;  the  accounts  given 
by  Radulphus  dc  Diceto  and  Matthew  Paris,  p.  206. 

I.       Al)p.   Warham's  Reports  to  Wolsey  on  Boxley  Abbey,  p.  207. 

K.      The  Boxley  Vicarage  and  Parsonage  Terrier,  p.  208. 

L.  Pope  Alexander  III.  enforces  on  Boxley  Aljbey  the  payment  of 
Tithes  on  all  their  lands  ;  suljse(|uently  cancelled  by  Pope  Hono- 
rius,  &c.,  p.  212. 

M.     List  of  Rectors  and  Vicars,  p.  21-1. 


COEEIGENDA. 


Page  5,  Footnote  4. — For  "  Bratson"  read  "  Bcatson." 

Page  11,  Footnote. — For  "father"  read  "grandfather." 

Page  22,  Last  line. — For  "  Maidstone"  read  "Wootton." 

Page  65,  Six  lines  from  the  bottom. — For  "  thaumatergic  "  read  "thau- 
matwrgic." 

Page  192,  Seven  lines  from  the  bottom.— For  "Regis"  read  "Reges." 


To  Face  Page  1. 


ARMS   OF   FAMILIES   CONNECTED   WITH   BOXLEY. 


Astley. 


Champneys 


THE 

HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE     PARISH. 


THE  Manor  of  Boxley  holds  in  "Domesday  Book" 
no  insignificant  place  among  those  which  the 
Conqueror  had  conferred  on  his  half-brother  Odo.  The 
entry  in  that  unique  Record^  coming  under  the  heading 
"  The  Lands  of  the  Bishop  of  Baieux/^  may  be  thus 
rendered  in  English  ;  "  Robert  the  Latin  {Buberfus 
Latinus)  holds  Boseleu^  (or  Boscleu)  at  farm.  It  was 
rated  at  seven  sulings^  in  the  days  of  the  Confessor ;  now 
at  five  sulings.  There  is  arable  land  of  twenty  teams. 
In  demesne  there  are  three  teams  and  forty-seven 
villaui,  with  eleven  hordarii,  having  sixteen  servi.  And 
twenty  acres  of  pasture  land  :  wood  for  fifty  hogs.  In 
the  time  of  King  Edward^  and  afterwards,  it  was  worth 
twenty-five  pounds  ;    now  thirty  pounds ;    and  at  present 

^  There  is  clearly  a  mistake  here  in  the  spelling  of  the  name,  for  elsewhere 
it  is  uniformly  spelt  with  an  X,  thus  Boxle  or  Boxele.  The  presence  of 
the  emblem,  and  of  the  very  word  "  buxus,"  on  the  Seal  of  the  Monastery  (to 
be  described  in  due  course)  supports  the  inference  that  from  a  very  early 
period  the  name  of  the  Parish  was  associated  with  the  box  trees  so  abundant 
on  the  neighbouring  hill  side. 

-  A  siding  is  a  Kentish  land  measure,  about  160  acres. 
B 


2  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

pays  rent  fifty-five  pounds.  Alnod  Cilt  lield  it/^^  It 
must  liave  been  a  valuable  Manor,  for  fifty-five  pounds  a 
year  represented  a  liigli  rental  for  a  single  manor  f  yet 
such  was  the  sum  wliicli  Robert  (evidently  from  his 
name  a  Norman)  seems  to  have  paid  to  Odo. 

The  next  mention  of  this  manor  is  its  being  granted 
by  Eichard  I.  to  the  recently  founded  Abbey  of  Boxley, 
from  which  the  inference  is  that  it  was  one  of  those 
manors  that  on  Odo^s  disgrace  and  banishment  from 
England  had  been  confiscated,  and  had  so  reverted  to  the 
Crown. 

It  may  be  well  to  mention  here  that  the  term  "  Manor" 
was  often  used  in  Norman  times  in  a  looser  sense,  being 
applied  also  to  any  freehold  estate  on  which  the  owner 
had  a  residence.  This,  from  the  Latin  word  nianendo  (re- 
siding), was  called  a  Manor .^  Over  all  such,  however,  the 
Paramount   Manor   would    exercise    a    certain    Lordship. 

The  Parish  of  Boxley  may  be  thus  traced.  Its 
Northern  extremity  is  found  deep  in  the  Chatham 
Woods,  from  whence,  skirting  Lidsing,  with  the  hamlet 
of  Dunn  Street  on  the  East,  and  touching  the  borders 
of  Bredhurst,  it  runs  southward,  side  by  side  with 
Detling,    till  at   "  the  Hookers"  it  passes  Thornham    and 

^  Domesday,  f.  8,  b.  2.  Alnod  is  believed  to  be  identical  with  Ulnoth, 
the  4th  son  of  Earl  Godwin,  and  younger  brother  of  Harold.  The  title  Cild 
indicates  a  member  of  the  Royal  family,  a  Prince.  De'Gray  Birch  s 
Domesday  Book,  p.  104.     See  Appendix  A. 

^  This  amount  is  confirmed  by  the  return  made  by  the  Sheriff  of  Kent 
for  1155,  (Pipe  Roll,  2,  Henry  II.,)  where  the  property  of  W.  de  Ypra,  in 
Boxley,  is  given  as  £55.     Furley's  IVeald  of  Kent,  i.,  338. 

^  Ordericus  Vitalis,  bk.  iv.,  eh.  7.  Spelman's  Glossary  'in  loco.'  Furley's 
Weald  of  Kent,  i.,  273. 


THE  PARISH.  5 

Bearsted,  and  finds  its  southern  boundary  at  tlie  river 
Len,  including  the  "Turkey  Mills."^  Separated  by  this 
little  stream  from  the  Parish  of  Maidstone,  it  travels  a 
short  distance  westward,  and  then  abruptly  turns  in  a 
northerly  direction  till  it  reaches  Penenden  Heath ; 
there  it  strikes  off  nearly  at  right  angles  to  the  west  to 
Thrott  Wharf  and  Rodway,^  on  the  banks  of  the  Medway, 
by  which  it  is  separated  from  Allington  and  its  Castle. 
Still  on  westward  it  impinges  upon  Aylesford  ;  then 
turning  back  nearly  due  east  for  a  short  distance,  it  re- 
turns abruptly  to  the  north,  crosses  the  high  road  between 
Maidstone  and  Rochester,  and  loses  itself  in  the  Chatham 
Woods  again. 

The  Manorial  rights,  as  already  stated,  were  con- 
ferred on  the  Abbey  by  Richard  I.,  in  the  year  1189, 
"  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul  of  his  father,  King  Henry, 
his  own  soul,  and  his  mother's,"^  To  these  rights  Henry 
III.  added  that  of  holding  a  market  weekly  (no  slight 
privilege  in  those   days)   at  a  place  to    the    west    of   the 

^  These  Mills  were  originally  constructed  for  "fulling,"  or  cleansing  woollen 
stuffs,  for  which  purpose  the  neighbouring  vein  of  "Fuller's  Earth"  at 
Grove  Green  was  so  well  suited.  But  when  this  industry  was  removed  else- 
where, Mr.  Whatman,  on  buying  the  i)roperty,  converted  them  into  the 
present  Paper  Mills,  which  he  subsequently  sold  to  Messrs.  HoUingworth,  in 
whose  family  they  now  are. 

^  Here  it  includes  Sandling  Place,  the  property  of  S.  Mercer,  Esq.,  and 
Cobtree  Hall,  supposed  to  be  the  scene  of  the  skating  adventure  so  graphi- 
cally described  by  Dickens  in  The  Pickwick  Papers.  "Thrott"  is  probably 
derived  from  the  Saxon  word  Trod,  a  road  or  track  ;  and  it,  with  the 
neighbouring  "  Rodway,"  clearly  implies  that  at  this  point,  or  very  near  it, 
was  the  old  ford  or  crossing,  of  which  mention  is  made  by  Antoninus  in  his 
Itinerary. 

^  Patent  Rolls,  i.  Richard  I.  Dugdale's  Monasterium,  1,  827,  Harleian 
MSS.,  6748,  26. 


4  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Abbey,  still  called  "  Fartliings/^  A  further  favour,  that 
of  free  warren  over  this  and  other  manors,  and  right  to 
hold  Courts,  was  granted  by  Edward  III.  in  the  year 
1859.1 

There  existed  also  three  lesser  estates,  called  Manors, 
known  as  Yinter^s,  Wevering,  and  Newenham,  (or  Newn- 
ham) ;  each  of  which  has  its  separate  history. 

Of  these  Vinter^s  was  the  most  ancient,  and  apparently 
the  most  important.  The  family  which  evidently  gave 
to  it  its  name  (variously  spelt  Vineter,  Vintier,  Vyntier, 
and  Vinter)-  must  have  held  a  conspicuous  position  in 
the  county  early  in  the  14th  century.  Eoger  de  Vineter 
was  one  of  the  Conservators  of  the  Peace  in  the  18th 
of  Edward  III.  (1344.)  ^  His  son  Robert,  who  died  in 
1373,  endowed  a  Chantry  Chapel  in  All  Saints^  Maid- 
stone, in  1369.^  John  Vineter,  his  son  and  heir,  sold 
the  manor  in  1407  to  John,  the  son  of  Sir  Ralph  de 
Fremingham,  of  Loose,  through  whose  daughter  it  passed 
to  the  old  Knightly  family  of  Isley,  of  Sundridge,^ 
whose  descendant.  Sir  Henry  Isley,  being  involved  in 
the  conspiracy  of  Sir  Thomas  Wiat,  forfeited  the  manor 
to  the  Crown.^  In  the  meanwhile,  through  all  its  trans- 
fers, it  retained  its  original  name  of  "  Vinter^s",  as  it  does 
to  this  day.     Queen  Mary  having  obtained  possession  of 

1  Tanner's  Notitia,  p.  214. 

2  Canterbury  Chapter  Record  MSS.  Abp.  Whittlesey's  Register  (Lam- 
beth), f.  19  and  f.  82,  b.     Abp.  Langham's  Reg.  {Ibid.),  f.  120. 

*  Philipott's  Villare  Gantiamim,  p.  90. 

*  The  Chantry  Chapel  is  still  known  as  "Vinter's,"  or  "  Gould's,"  Chapel, 
from  the  small  manor  with  which  he  endowed  it. 

^  Philipott's  Villare  Cantianurn,  p.  90.     Hasted,  vol.  iv.,  342. 

"  The  Tithes  of  Vinter's  originally  belonged  to  Leeds  Priory,  but  when 
appropriated  by  Henry  VIII.,  on  the  suppression  of  this  Priory,  were  granted 
by  the  King  to  Rochester  Chapter.     (Hasted  iv.,  344.) 


THE  PAEISH.  5 

it^  conferred  it  on  Dr.  Jolm  (Jutte.  He  was  the  younger 
brother  of  Sir  Henry  Cutte,  of  Binbiiry,  in  the  Parish  of 
Thornham.^  He  seems  to  have  soon  sold  it  to  Sir  Cavaliero 
Maycott  (or  Mackworth)/  who  parted  with  it  to  Wilham 
Covert,  Esq.,  who  had  married  Barbara,  the  widow  of 
Sir  Henry  Cutte,  Kt.,  John  Cutte's  brother.  He  again 
sold  it  to  Sir  William  Tufton,  Bt.,  in  whose  family  it  re- 
mained for  two  generations,  until  about  1660,  Sir  Charles 
Tufton  sold  it  to  Daniel  White,^  Esq.,  of  Winchelsea,  in 
Sussex.  He  dying  without  issue,  left  it  to  his  brother 
John's  son,  Daniel,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  the  last 
Century  sold  it  to  Sir  Samuel  Ongley ;  who  also  died  with- 
out family,  and  the  estate  passed  to  his  nephew,  Samuel 
Ongley,  Esq.,  and. after  him  to  Robert  Henley,  Esq.,  who 
took  the  name  of  Ongley,  and  was  created  Baron  Ongley,* 
of  Old  Warden,  in  the  Peerage  of  Ireland.  As  he  left  no 
son,  Vinters  was  sold,  and  found  a  purchaser  in  James 
Whatman,  Esq.,  who  had  been  Sheriff  for  the  County  in 
1767.  His  grandson,  the  late  James  Whatman,  Esq.,  for 
several  years  represented  the  borough  of  Maidstone,  and 
for  a  short  time  the  County,  in  Parliament.  To  him  the 
present  handsome  mansion  is  indebted  for  its  ornamental 
frontage,  added  on  to  the  substantial  house  originally 
built  by  Roger  de  Vinter  in  1343,  of  which  the  old  gables 
are  still  visible,  and  which  had  been  greatly  enlarged  by 
the  elder  Mr.  Whatman  on  his  becoming  possessed  of  the 
property  in  1783. 

^  In  Thornham  Church  is  a  transept  still  known  as  "Cutte's  Chapel." 

^  The  double  name  is  always  given  in  the  Church  Register. 

3  Hasted  calls  him  "  Whyte,"  but  in  his  Will,  (Preg.  Court,  East,  89)  he 
is  styled  ' '  Daniel  White,  of  Gray's  Inn,  and  of  Vinters,  in  the  Parish  of 
Boxley." 

*  Hasted's  History  of  Kent,  iv.,  343.     Bratson's  Political  Index,  iii.,  172. 


6  HISTORY  OF  BOXLEY. 

Adjoining  Vinters,  on  the  east,  and  now  merged  into 
it,  is  wliat  was  formerly  known  as  "  Wevering  Manoi-",  but 
more  recently  as  Vintners.  The  similarity  of  the  two 
names  being  liable  to  lead  to  confusion,  it  is  important 
to  distinguish  between  them,  and  also  to  account  for  the 
change  from  Wevering  to  Yintners.  The  original  residence, 
though  now  a  comparatively  insignificant  farm  house,  in 
what  is  still  called  Wevering  Street,  once  represented  a 
goodly  Manor. 

Philipott  has  traced  back  its  history  into  the  "  long  long 
ago.'^^  He  says  in  Edward  III/s  reign  it  was  held  by 
Knight's  service  by  Waretius,  son  of  John  de  Shelving,  to 
whom  it  had  come  through  his  mother,  Helen  de  Bourne. 
A  branch  Manor,  which  adjoined  and  really  formed  part 
of  it,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  de  Houghams. 
By  marrying  Benedicta,  the  daughter  and  co-heiress  of 
Robert  de  Hougham,  he  united  the  two  estates  again, 
and  transmitted  them  to  his  son  William,  through  whose 
only  daughter  it  passed  by  marriage  to  Edward  Haut,- 
Esq.,  of  Haut  Place,  in.  Petham,  in  whose  family  it  re- 
mained for  three  or  four  generations,  until  William  Haut, 
dying  without  male  issue,  the  estate  passed  by  the  mar- 
riage of  his  eldest  daughter  to  Sir  Thomas  Wiat.  It 
remained  with  him  till  the  fatal  year  1554,  when  all  the 
Wiat  property  was  confiscated  by  Queen  Mary.  Elizabeth, 
however,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  her  reign,^  restored  to 
Dame  Jane,  the  widow  of  her  sister's  victim,  Allington, 
and  part  of  the  Abbey  property,  but  apparently  not 
the  Wevering   Manor,    though    that    had    been    her    own 

^   Villare  Cantianum,  pp.  89,  PO. 

■■^  The  name  is  also  spelt  Haute  or  Hawte. 

^  Augmentation  Office,  Box  A.  55. 


THE  PARISH.  7 

by  inheritance.  This  estate  appears  to  have  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  one  Stephen  Mason/  of  Bearsted,  "  Citizen 
and  Vintner  of  the  Citye  of  London/'  who  dying  in  1560, 
left  it  to  his  widow  for  life,  with  reversion  to  the  "Vint- 
ner's Company."  Hence  it  came  that  what  had  been 
hitherto  called  the  "  Wevering  Manor"  was  thenceforth 
known  as  the  "Vintners'  Estate."  The  site  of  the  old 
Manor  House,  and  some  of  the  original  building,  may  still 
be  recognized  in  the  present  farmhouse,  but  the  armorial 
bearings"  of  the  Company  on  the  front  wall  and  in  the 
windows  proclaim  its  present  ownership.  In  the  Will  of 
Stephen  Mason  mention  is  made  of  a  Chapel  having  been 
attached  to  the  Manor  House,  but  of  that  no  trace — nor 
apparently  any  tradition — seems  to  remain.  Part  of  this 
estate  was  eventually  bought  by  Mr.  Whatman  and 
merged  into  that  of  Vinters.  Although  the  Chapel  alluded 
to  as  having  been  attached  to  Wevering  Manor-House 
has  wholly  disappeared,  Mr.  Whatman  more  than  supplied 
its  place  by  building  at  Grrove  Green,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  inhabitants  of  this  outlying  hamlet  of  the  Parish,  a 
Schoolroom-Mission-Chapel  and  providing  the  salary  for 
the  Clergyman. 

Another  adjoining  Manor,  still  retaining  its  original 
name  of  ISTewenham  (or  Newnham),  was,  according  to 
Philipott,^  granted  by  the  Conqueror  to  Odo,  Bishop 
of  Baieux,  and  probably,  like  Boxley  itself,  resumed  by 
the  Crown  on  his  banishment.     In  Stephen's  reign  it  had 

^  S.  Mason's  Will,  Consistory  Court,  Canterbury,  xxviii.  53. — Appendix  B. 

2  A  chevron,  between  3  tuns.  Herbert,  in  his  "  Livery  Companies  of  London," 
says  the  name  Vintners  is  a  corruption  of  their  original  title  Wine-Tonners." 

^  In  the  body  of  his  Villare  Cantianum  (p.  244)  he  by  mistake  identifies 
this  with  the  Newenham  near  Faversham,  but  in  the  first  page  of  his 
Addenda  he  corrects  himself  and  describes  it  as  being  "a  limbe  of  Boxley." 


8  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

come  into  tlie  possession  of  William  d^Ypres,  and  was  in- 
cluded in  tlie  lands  with  wliich  lie  endowed  the  Abbey. 
There  it  remained  till  the  Suppression^  when  Henry  hav- 
ing appropriated  it,  conferred  it,  with  the  adjoining  pro- 
perties, on  Sir  Thomas  Wiat.  His  unfortunate  son.  Sir 
Thomas,  forfeiting  all  by  his  rebellion  under  Mary,  Newn- 
ham  was  conferred  by  Elizabeth  on  her  Master  of  the 
Jewels,  John  Astley,  Esq.,  who  had  already  received  Maid- 
stone Palace^  from  the  Queen.  His  son.  Sir  John  Astley, 
having  no  son,  left  it  to  his  son-in-law.  Sir  Norton  Knatch- 
bull;  who  sold  it  to  Sir  John  Banks,  Bart.,  on  whose  death, 
in  the  year  1699,  it  passed,  by  the  marriage  of  his  eldest 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  to  Heneage  Finch,  Esq.,  afterwards 
Lord  Aylesford,  who  sold  it  to  James  Whatman,  Esq. 

Having  thus  traced  the  history  of  the  three  older  Manors 
in  the  parish — Yinter's,  Wevering,  and  Newnham — some 
account  must  be  given  of  those  estates  formed  out  of  the 
lands  originally  belonging  to  the  Abbey,  and  lying  in  the 
central  and  more  northern  parts  of  the  parish,  i.e.,  those 
attached  to  the  Abbey  House,  Park  House  (Boxley),  Park 
House  (Maidstone),  and  Boxley  House. 

When  the  various  Abbeys  of  the  Kingdom  were  dis- 
solved, and  their  lands  appropriated  by  Henry  VIII. ,  a 
general  distribution  of  them  took  place  among  the  Royal 
Courtiers,  while  the  King  took  to  himself  all  the  plate  and 
treasure  which  accrued  from  them.  One  can  imagine  the 
King,  with  many  signs  of  premature  age  and  decay  coming 
upon  him,  surrounded  by  a  swarm  of  hungry,  impatient 
Courtiers,  watching  like  Cornish  wreckers  the  bursting 
storm,  and  eager  to  secure  whatever  flotsam  or  jetsam 
might  drift  up. 

1  See  Histjnj  of  All  Saints'  Church,  Maidstone,  p.  150. 


THE   PARISH.  9 

It  is  said  to  liave  been  suggested  to  tlie  King  by- 
some  Conrtier  that  he  should  "  butter  the  rooks'  nests  well, 
and  they  would  never  return  again/'^  meaning  thereby 
that  he  should  protect  himself  against  Rome  and  the 
Monks  by  bestowing  their  lands  among  families  of  import- 
ance and  influence.  Henry  seemed  only  too  ready  to  act 
on  this  plan,  always  keeping  an  eye  to  his  own  interests. 

Too  often,  as  the  result  proved,  the  least  worthy  or 
desirable  of  those  Palace  hangers-on, — the  spendthrifts  and 
the  gamblers  about  Court, — carried  off  the  richest  prizes, 
the  most  valuable  estates,  where,  demolishing  the  old 
buildings  and  felling  the  timber,  they  turned  all  into 
money,  to  the  sore  neglect  and  sorrow  of  the  old,  often 
hei-editary,  retainers.  But  with  Boxley  it  fared  less  badly 
than  with  many  of  the  condemned  houses.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Medway  stood  the  historic  feudal  fortress  of 
Allington  Castle,  then  owned  by  one  of  the  King's  most 
loyal  and  faithful  subjects,  Sir  Thomas  Wiat,  a  man  of 
wealth  as  well  as  honour,  and  he  obtained  by  exchange  the 
lands  which  lay  so  conveniently  near  to  his  own  domain.- 
Thus,  apparently  in  their  entirety,  the  Abbey  lands  passed 
from  the  Crown  to  the  Wiat  family.  Only,  however,  to 
remain  with  them  for  a  single  generation ;  for  the  whole 
was  forfeited  to  the  Crown  by  Sir  Thomas  "  the  younger  " 
raising  the  country  against  Queen  Mary's  Spanish  alliance. 
Under  Elizabeth  it  was  distributed  piecemeal  among  her 
favourites,  never  again  to  be  reunited  in  one  property. 
Out  of  that  distribution  came  the  several  estates  we  have 
named,  and  will  now  proceed  to  describe. 

Elizabeth,  once  firmly  seated  on  the  throne,  seemed  to 

1  'Vf3l\\o\e,'s  Miscellaneous  Antiquities,  Part  ii.,  p.  19. 

2  "  Augmentat.  Office,  Box  A.  55." 


10  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

be  bent  on  righting  some  of  tbe  wrongs  her  father  and 
sister  had  perpetrated.  In  the  tenth  year  of  her  reign  she 
obtained  from  Parliament  a  cancelling  the  forfeiture  of  the 
Wiat  family  in  the  person  of  Sir  Thomas's  son  George, 
and  conferred  on  him  a  portion  of  the  Boxley  Estate,  and 
three  years  after  she  restored  to  the  widow  (Dame  Jane 
as  she  was  called)  the  Abbey  House,  the  Manor  of  Boxley, 
and  the  Upper  Grange.^  On  her  death  the  two  properties 
were  united  in  the  person  of  her  son  George.  From  him 
they  passed  to  his  eldest  son,  Francis,  a  man  of  some  dis- 
tinction, having  received  the  honour  of  Knighthood  from 
Charles  I.,  and  been  twice  Governor  of  Virginia.  The 
change  in  the  spelling  of  the  name  from  Wiat  to  Wyat 
seems  to  have  taken  place  under  him.  He  died  in 
1644,  leaving  the  Boxley  property  to  his  eldest  son, 
Henry.  His  only  daughter,  Elizabeth,  was  married  to 
Thomas  Bosville,  Esq.,  and  their  daughter  Frances  carried 
the  estate  to  her  husband.  Sir  Thomas  Selyard  (or  Sey- 
liard);  but  Edwin,  the  younger  brother  of  Henry,  a  dis- 
tinguished lawyer  (of  whom  more  in  a  later  Chapter), 
established  his  claim  to  a  large  portion  of  the  estate 
against  his  niece.  Lady  Selyard,  leaving  her  only  the 
Abbey  and  the  lands  adjoining.  However,  on  her 
death  without  a  son  to  carry  on  the  inheritance,  the 
Abbey  was  bought  by  Edward  Austen,  Esq.,  of  Sevenoaks, 
from  whom  it  passed  to  his  brother  Robert,  whose  des- 
cendant sold  it  to  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  afterwards  Lord 
Aylesford,  by  whom  it  was  sold  to  Lord  Eomney,  and  has 
been  recently  purchased  by  Major  Mawdistley  G.  Best, 
of  Park  House. 

It  seems  quite  impossible  now  to  assign  any  period  for 

1  "Augmentation  Rolls,  ii.,  n.  10  ;  iii.,  n,  57,  58." 


THE  PARISH.  11 

the  special  work  of  demolition  wliicli  has  taken  place 
here^  but  it  may  fairly  be  divided  between  the  Wiats  and 
the  Selyards^  while  the  present  comparatively  modern 
dwelling  house  must  be  of  a  much  later  date. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  Lawsuit  in  which  Edwin 
Wyat  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  his  aunt,  Lady  Selyard, 
that  portion  of  the  Abbey  land  which  had  come  to  her 
through  her  uncle,  George  Wyat,  leaving  her  only  the  part 
which  had  been  restored  to  her  grandmother,  the  Dame 
Jane.  Thus  the  land  above  the  Church  was  formed  into  a 
separate  property,  and  became  known  as  the  Boxley 
House  estate.  Edwin  Wyat  died  in  1714,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  85,  and' was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son, 
Francis,  who  dying  without  issue  left  it  to  his  brother 
Richard ;  he  having  no  children  bequeathed  it  to  his 
relative  Robert,  Lord  Romney,^  in  whose  family  it  re- 
mained until  it  was  recently  purchased  by  Albert  F. 
Style,  Esq.,  who  is  the  great-grandson  of  the  2nd  Lord 
Romney. 

Another  portion  of  the  original  Abbey  lands  lying 
between  the  Abbey  House  and  that  described  as  the 
BosLEY  House  estate,  now  called  Park  House,  Boxley,  has 
for  the  last  century  and  a  half  belonged  to  the  Best  family. 
To  whom  it  was  granted  by  Elizabeth,  or  through  what 
families  it  passed  down  to  the  commencement  of  the  last 
century  even  Hasted,  with  his  powers  of  indefatigable 
research  and  rare  opportunities  of  acquiring  information, 
has  failed  to  trace.  According  to  him,  a  Mrs.  St.  John  sold 
it  in  1730  to  Mawdistley  Best,  Esq.,  who  ten  years  after 
was  High  Sheriff  for  the  County.    His  younger  son,  James, 

^  His'  father,  Sir  Robert  Marsham,  had  married  Elizabeth  Bosville,  the 
grand-daughter  of  Sir  Francis  Wiat. 


12  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

who  succeeded  to  it  (the  elder  brother  taking  the  Chilston 
estate),  was  also  Sheriff  in  1751,  while  his  descendant,  the 
present  owner,  Major  Mawdistley  Gr.  Best,  filled  that  oflBce 
in  1884.  He  has  erected  a  spacious  mansion,  and  largely 
increased  the  estate  by  purchasing  adjacent  land,  and 
quite  recently  the  Abbey  House  and  property. 

The  fourth  important  Estate  which  was  partly  formed 
out  of  the  distribution  of  the  Abbey  lands  is  that  now 
known  as  Park  House,  Maidstone,  belonging  to  the 
Lushington  family.  It  bears  this  distinctive  name  because 
until  about  a  century  ago  the  house  stood  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  Parish  of  Maidstone,  From  what  source, 
or  when,  the  Maidstone  portion  of  this  estate  came  into 
private  hands  is  somewhat  doubtful.  Hasted^  says  it  was 
originally  part  of  the  possessions  of  the  See  of  Canterbury, 
and  obtained  by  Henry  VIII.  from  Abp.  Cranmer  either 
by  purchase  or  exchange.  It  appears  to  have  then  come 
into  the  hands  of  Sir  Anthony  Knevett,  but  probably  was 
resumed  by  the  Crown  when  the  Knevetts  were  involved 
in  the  "  Wiat  rebellion."  In  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth^s 
reign  it  was  held  by  Alexander  Parker,  Esq.,  described  as 
"  Le  Park,"  together  with  ''  Park  Wood,  alias  Boxley,  and 
Mowlton  Downe,  in  Boxley."^  This  can  only  have  been  a 
temporary  arrangement,  for  in  the  grants  of  Abbey  lands 
made  by  Elizabeth  we  find  the  Nether  Grange,  or  Lower 
Grange  Farm  and  adjacent  land  granted  to  Serjeant 
Nicholas  Barham.^     It  subsequently  came  into  possession 

1  Hasted's  History  of  Kent,  iv.,  302. 

^  Abbey  and  Croivn  Lands  Leased  Out,  5  Eliz.,  the  mention  of  Boxley 
distinguishes  this  from  "The  Parke,"  which  the  Abj).  leased  to  "  Ry chard e 
Hely,  in  the  Borough  of  Westrye,"  (now  called  "Lock  Meadows") in  1519, 
and  alluded  to  in  Patent  Roll,  11  Henry  VIII. 

^  Augmentation  Rolls,  vii.  n.  22,  viii.  n,  51 — 53. 


THE  PARISH.  13 

of  the  Brewer  family  (described  in  the  earlier  entries  in 
the  Church  Eegisters  as  Bruers),  by  whom  it  was  sold  to 
Sir  T.  Taylor^  who  appears  to  have  owned  it  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.  His  son,  Sir  Thomas  Taylor,  dying  without 
issue,  it  was  sold  to  James  Calder,  Esq.,  in  1735,  whose 
son,  Sir  Henry  Calder,  built  the  present  imposing  house  on 
a  far  more  commanding  site  than  the  old  one,  of  Kentish 
rag  quarried  out  of  the  adjacent  field,  thus  removing  it 
out  of  the  Maidstone  into  the  Boxley  Parish,  but  retaining 
for  it  its  old  name  of  "  Park  House,  Maidstone,"  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  Boxley  "  Park  House,"  the  residence 
of  Major  M.  Gl.  Best.  Early  in  the  present  Century  it  was 
purchased  by  E.  H.  Lushington,  Esq.,  whose  family  still 
occupy  it. 

It  appears  that  the  same  year  in  which  the  grant  was 
made  to  George  Wiat,  a  further  grant  of  Abbey  lands 
was  made  to  his  younger  brother,  Edward,  comprising 
"  Coptre,  Styles  Meade,  Cowleblowes,  &c.,"^  but  these 
have  long  disappeared  as  a  separate  property,  and  have 
been  absorbed  into  the  different  estates ;  as  also  those 
which  composed  what  Hasted  calls  the  "Manor  of  Oven- 
helle  (or  Overhelle),"  generally  described  in  the  old 
Charters  as  ''super  montem." 

Such  is  the  Parish  of  Boxley,  covering  nearly  5,800 
acres,  with  a  population  of  1,400  people,  the  Manorial 
rights  remain  in  the  hands  of  Earl  Komney. 

1  Patent  Roll,  10  Elizabeth  Pt.  3,  m.  28.        Augment.  Rolls,  v.  n.  15. 


CHAPTER  II. 
PENENDEN  HEATH. 

MIDWAY  between  tiie  extreme  northern  and  southern 
limits  of  the  parish  of  Boxley,  and  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  county  of  Kent,  lies  the  historic  Penenden 
Heath,  now  in  its  reduced  proportions  no  longer  the 
harbour  for  gipsies  and  tramps,  but  converted  into  a 
pleasure-ground  for  the  neighbouring  town  of  Maidstone. 
To  realise  to  the  full  the  important  place  this  Heath 
once  held  in  English  history,  the  mind  must  go  back  far 
beyond  the  times  when  it  witnessed  the  frequent  gather- 
ings of  the  Sheriff  and  his  official  retinue,  to  transact  the 
business  of  the  county,  and  the  more  exciting  occasions  of 
the  election  of  Knights  of  the  Shire,  which  for  many 
generations  always  took  place  here  ;  or  those  sadder  scenes 
of  public  executions,  of  which  the  record  still  remains  in 
the  name  of  the  mound  close  by,  to  this  day  known  as 
*'  Gallows  Hill,"  with  the  adjacent  road  as  "  Hangman's 
Lane."  Long  anterior  to  this  runs  the  real  history  of 
Penenden  Heath. 

In  the  writings  of  the  earliest  monastic  chroniclers  men- 
tion is  made  of  it,  and  that  in  connection  with  one  of  the 
most  momentous  events  in  English  history.  On  this  spot 
was  held,  in  1076,  the  memorable  trial  in  which  an  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  a  brother  of  a  King — and  he 
''the  Conqueror" — were  the  contending  parties.     It  should 


THE  PARISH.  15 

be  mentioned  liere  that  very  different  dates  have  been 
assigned  to  this  Meeting.  Philipott^  is  clearly  wrong 
when  he  says  it  took  place  in  the  fourth  year  of  William 
the  Conqueror  (that  would  make  it  1070).  Freeman,^ 
the  great  authority  for  that  period,  has  suggested  1073, 
because  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle^  says  it  was  in  the  third 
year  after  Lanfranc's  consecration  :  but  that  very  Record 
raises  a  doubt  as  to  its  own  accuracy  by  adding  that  it 
was  the  year  in  which  Peter  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Lichfield  or  Chester.  Now  Godwin  and  Le  jSTeve^  agree 
in  stating  that  the  said  Peter  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Lichfield    in    1U67,    and    not    transferred    to    Chester   till 

1075.  Another  argument  for  the  later  date  arises  out 
of  Ernulph^s  account  of  the  Trial/  that  Ernostus  was  at 
the  time  Bishop  of  Rochester,  which    did    not    occur   till 

1076.  There,  again,  vEthelric  is  styled  Bishop  of  Chiches- 
ter ;  he  really  never  was  Bishop  of  Chichester,  but  Bishop 
of  Selsey  when  deposed ;  and  the  transfer  of  the  See  from 
Selsey  to  Chichester  did  not  take  place  till  1U75.  On  all 
these  grounds  the  writer  has  given  1076  as  the  probable 
date  of  the  Trial. 

The  case  may  be  thus  stated.  When  William  the 
Conqueror  had  removed  Stigand  from  the  Primacy,  on 
the  ground  of  uncanonical  and  schismatical  consecration, 

1   Villare  Cantianum,  p.  231. 

^  Norman  Conquest,  vol.  iv.,  p.  365. 

^  MSS.  Corpus  Christi  Coll.,  Cambridge,  clxxii. 

■*  Godwin's  De  Presidibus,  p.  312.     Le  Neve's  Fasti. 

5  Since  the  above  was  written,  the  author  has  had  the  opportunity  of  con- 
sulting the  original  MS.  in  the  Diocesan  Registry  at  Rochester,  and  finds 
that  neither  of  the  two  great  printed  authorities,  Wharton  in  his  Anglia 
Sacra,  nor  Selden  in  his  Notes  to  Eadmer's  Uistoria,  give  the  whole  of  the 
Record,  but  both  stop  short  of  the  concluding  paragraph,  which  gives  the 
date  thus,  amio  millesimo  septuagesimo  sexto. — See  Appendix  C. 


16  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

and  a  delay  occurred  in  tlie  arrival  of  Lanfranc,  whom  he 
designed  for  the  vacant  post,  the  King  brought  over  from 
Normandy  his  half-brother  Odo,  who  was  already  Bishop 
of  Baieux,  and,  probably  to  console  him  for  not  having 
the  Primacy,  had  not  only  created  him  Earl  of  Kent  and 
Warden  of  Dover  Castle,  but  conferred  on  him  no  less 
than  184  manors  in  Kent  and  250  in  other  parts  of 
England.^  He  had  also  the  charge  of  the  temporalities 
of  the  vacant  see  of  Canterbury,  and  was  constituted 
^^Kegent""  of  the  Kingdom. 

But  when  Lanfranc  arrived,  and  assumed  the  Primacy, 
he  found  that  Odo,  not  content  with  that  wealth  of 
lands  which  his  Royal  brother  had  lavished  upon  him, 
had  grievously  abused  the  power  and  authority  entrusted 
to  him,  and  had  appropriated  to  himself,  and  conferred  on 
his  minions,  many  other  valuable  manors  belonging  to  the 
See,  and  had  also  encroached  upon  the  rights  of  the 
Primacy,  and  even  of  the  Crown.  Lanfranc  appealed  to 
the  King  for  justice  and  restitution,  whereupon  William 
issued  a  Proclamation,  explicit  and  stringent,  its  very 
language  breathing  earnestness  and  determination ;  "  A 
Schiregemot  must  be  held.  To  it  must  be  summoned,  con- 
jointly by  the  Primate  and  the  Justiciar,  the  leading 
magnates  of  the  land,  in  the  King's  name ;  and  to  it  must 
come  all  parties  affected,  to  answer  and  make  restitution." 
''  Charge  them  from  me,"  it  ran,  "  that  they  restore  to  my 
episcopal  and  abbatial  estates  all  the  demesnes,  &c.,  which 

1  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  lands  held  by  the  Bishop  of  Baieux  in 
Kent  alone  may  be  formed  from  the  fact  that  of  the  14  folios  in  Domesday 
referring  to  that  County  no  less  than  6,  i.e.,  from  6  a.  1  to  11  b.  2, 
are  wholly  filled  with  descriptions  of  his  Manors. 

^  "William  of  Malmesbury  calls  him  "  Vicedominus,"  Gesta  Regum  (Hearne's 
Ei.)  vol.  ii.,  46d. 


PENENDEN   HEATH.  17 

my  bishops  and  abbots  through  easiness,  fear,  or  cupidity, 
have  given  up,  and  agreed  to  their  having,  or  which  they 
themselves  have  violently  deprived  them  of ;  .  .  .  .  and 
unless  they  make  restitution,  as  you  shall  summon  them 
from  me,  do  thou  compel  them  to  do  so,  whether  they  will 
or  no.  If  any  other,  or  any  of  you  on  whom  I  have 
enjoined  this  mandate,  have  participated  in  this,  let  him 
make  similar  restitution  of  any  episcopal  or  abbatial  pro- 
perty which  he  may  have,  lest  on  account  of  what  any  of 
you  may  yourself  possess,  you  be  the  less  ready  to  enfore 
my  command,  etc."^ 

Such  a  summons  could  not  fail  to  have  effect.  Penen- 
den  Heath,  which  according  to  '^Domesda,y"  was  one  of 
Odo's  own  manors,  was  to  be  the  place  of  meeting,  and 
thither  these  magnates  of  the  land,  Norman  and  Saxon, 
came  together  to  hear  and  to  make  answer  to  the  charges 
to  be  brought  by  Lanfranc  against  Odo,  and  against  all 
involved  in  his  misdeeds. 

Well  might  the  old  Chronicler  dwell  with  seeming 
delight  on  the  picture  he  has  drawn,  in  his  nervous  and 
graphic  media3val  Latin,  of  the  scene  here  enacted. 
Though  a  Norman  himself,  and  the  rival  claimants  both 
Normans,  while  the  Manors  belonged  to  the  English 
Church,  yet — was  he  not  a  Churchman  ?  and  so  would 
naturally  describe  with  ardour  the  contest  between  the  two, 
sympathising  with  the  one  who  was  struggling  to  recover 
the  revenues  of  the  Church,  of  which  the  other  had  robbed 
her.  Such  a  Courf  of  Justice,  taking  into  account  the 
position  of  those  principally  concerned,  could  never  before 
have  sat  on  English  soil.     Here  were  Norman  and  Saxon 

^  The  original  Summons  is  given  in  Rymer's  Fcedcra,  vol.  i.,  p.  3.      See 
Appendix  C. 
C 


18  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

bishops,  Norman  barons  and  knights,  Saxon  earls  and 
thanes,  types  of  the  two  races,  on  whom,  now  that  he  was 
seated  on  his  throne,  the  Conqueror  desired  to  see  justice 
administered,  and  whom  he  in  his  heart  hoped,  if  it  might 
be,  to  see  welded  into  one  people. 

Of  this  remarkable  trial,  the  best  account  that  has  come 
to  us  is  that  of  Ernulph,^  who  may  be  regarded  as  a  con- 
temporary authority,  for  he  had  been  a  Benedictine  monk 
of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  of  which  house  he  was  ap- 
pointed the  second  Prior  in  1096,  promoted  to  be  Abbot  of 
Peterborough  in  1107,  and  in  1114  raised  to  the  bishopric 
of  Eochester.^  To  his  pen  we  are  indebted  for  the  earliest 
history  of  that  diocese,  and  for  the  fullest  account  of  the 
Penenden  trial.  Even  he,  however,  gives  us  little  more 
than  the  bare  names  of  those  who  were  present.  To 
contemporary  readers  what  more  would  be  necessary  ?  for 
to  them  the  name  and  position  of  each  would  be  familiar. 
But  it  is  not  so  after  a  lapse  of  eight  hundred  years.  A 
more  detailed  description  is  now  necessary  to  make  the 
import  and  grandeur  of  that  scene  intelligible.  The  very 
presence  of  those  men  on  such  an  occasion  shows  that  each 
must  have  had  a  conspicuous  personality  which  alone 
would  entitle  him  to  be  there ;  and  it  is  only  by  investing 
each  one  with  his  own  individuality  (so  far  as  is  possible 

^  The  original  MS.  is  in  the  Rochester  Registry,  under  the  title  of 
Undecimo  quarterns  Registr.  Teniporalium  Episcop.,  xL,  p.  121.  It  is  rather 
inaccurately  given  by  Selden  in  his  Notes  to  Eadmer's  Historia,  and  still 
more  imperfectly  copied  by  Dugdale  in  his  Monasticon  Anglicanum,  p.  827  ; 
by  Wharton  in  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  i.,  p.  334  and  in  Thorpe's  Registrum 
Roffense,  p.  27  ;  all  of  whom  seem  to  have  been  content  to  copy  from  Selden, 
therefore  all  also  omit  the  last  paragi'aph,  which  gives  the  date  of  the 
meeting.     See  Appendix  D. 

2  Anglia  Sacra,  i.,  p.  136.     Godwin,  De  Presulibus,  p.  526. 


PENENDEN   HEATH.  19 

after  so  long  an  interval)  that  the  representative  character 
of  the  assembly  can  be  realised. 

The  King  was  fitly  represented  by  Geoffrey  de  Mow- 
bray, Bishop  of  Coutance  {Goisfridus  Constantiensis) ,^  and 
now  Justiciar  of  England,  whom  Eadmar  describes  as  a 
man  of  great  wealth-  as  well  as  of  high  authority.  He 
had  been  an  old  vassal  of  William's  in  the  days  of  his 
Norman  dukedom,  having  in  1048  been  appointed  to  the 
see  of  Coutance,  and  soon  after  the  Conquest  brought  over 
to  England,  and  in  1070  placed  in  his  present  office  of 
"  Legal  Deputy,"  in  which  capacity  he  was  fitly  selected 
to  preside  at  the  impending  trial,  "  to  see  justice  admini- 
stered." 

By  his  side,  as  the  sage  expounder  of  Saxon  customs 
as  well  as  joint  arbiter^  with  him,  sat  ^'Ethelric,'^  an  old 
Saxon  Bishop,  whose  had  been  a  strangely  chequered 
career.  Originally  a  monk  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury^ 
he  had  been  raised,  in  the  year  1047,  to  the  South  Saxon 
bishopric  of  Selsey,  by  Edward  the  Confessor;  but  soon 
after  William's  arrival  he,  with  Stigand  of  Canterbury  and 
-i:Ethelmar  of  Elmham,  had  been  summarily  deposed  on  the 

^  So  Erniilplius  ;  Eadmer  (Uistoria,  p.  9)  calls  him  Ooffridus  ;  William  of 
Malmesbury  (Hearne's  Ed.,  p.  487),  Gaufridus  ;  wliile  in  a  Charter  from  the 
Conqueror  to  St.  Augustine's  Abbey  the  name  is  spelt  Golfrydus.  In 
Domesday  he  is  styled  Episcoptis  de  Sancto  Lcncdo,  and  de  Seynt  Loth,  clearly 
now  called  St.  Lo,  in  Lower  Normandy. 

^  "  Vir  ea  tempestate  prtedives  in  Anglia."     Eadmer's  Historia,  p.  9. 

^  Bishop  Godwin  {De Presulihus,  p.  501)  describes  his  position  as  "Arbiter 
honorarius  constitutus  una  cum  Godfrido  Constantiensi. " 

*  It  is  remarkable  that  both  Ernulph  and  Eadmer  style  JCthelric  "Bishop 
of  Chichester,"  whereas  it  was  the  Bishopric  of  Sehey  from  which  ho  was 
deposed,  and  the  See  was  not  transferred  to  Chichester  till  1076,  five  years 
after  his  deposition.     The  name  is  frequently  spelt  uEgelric  by  mistake. 


20  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

ostensible  ground  of  irregular  consecration,  though  more 
probably  on  the  real  ground  of  their  Saxon  origin,  and 
also  to  make  room  for  Norman  successors,  ^thelric, 
however,  had  fared  the  worst  of  the  three,  for  not  only 
did  he  lose  his  Bishopric,  as  the  Chroniclers  say,  "  unjustly 
and  uncanonically",^  but  was  brought  to  trial  (on  what 
charge  is  not  stated)  before  a  synod  held  at  Windsor,  and 
sent  to  prison  at  Marlborough.  His  fame,  however,  had 
survived ;  and  now  his  high  repute  for  learning,  and  his 
special  knowledge  of  English  laws  and  customs,  marked 
him  out  for  a  place  (and  an  important  one)  at  this  im- 
pending trial.  So  by  the  King's  special  mandate  he  was 
summoned  to  take  his  seat  beside  the  Justiciar  of  Eng- 
land ;  but  so  broken  down  had  be  become  by  age  and 
trouble-  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to  bear  the  fatigue  of 
riding  on  his  palfrey,  or  even  the  jolting  of  an  ordinary 
vehicle,  and  by  the  King's  order  he  was  brought  in 
quadriga,  in  a  car  drawn  by  four  horses. 

With  them  sat  Ernostus,  the  recently  appointed  Bishop 
of  Rochester,  a  favourable  type  of  a  Norman  churchman. 
The  King  had  brought  him  over  from  the  Monastery  of 
Bee,  and  made  him  Prior  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
and   in    1076    Lanfranc    selected     him-^    for    the    See  of 

1  Florence  of  Worcester  (Hearne's  Ed.,  ii.,  6)  says  "  Non  canoniee 
degradatur,  et  sine  cul^^a  mox  Rex  in  custodia  posuit."  Bishop  Godwin  {Be 
Presulibus,  501),  on  his  testimony,  puts  it  that  he  was  "  exauthoratus 
injuste." 

2  "Vir  antiquissimus,  et  legum  terrte  sapientissimus,  qui  exprfecepto 
Regis  advectus  fuit  adipsas  antiquas  legum  eonsuetudines  discutiendas  et 
edocendas,  in  una  quadriga,"  Scldeni  Notce  ad  Eadr.ieruin,  p.  199.  "Homo 
granda?vus  jumenti  concussionem  non  ferens  vehiculo  ad  locum  destinatum 
deportatus  est  (Pinenden  Heath)."     (Godwin's  De  Presulibus,  p.  501.) 

^  The  nomination  to  the  See  of  Rochester  had  from  the  time  of  Augustine 
lain  with  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  until  the  year  1147,  when  Arch- 
bishop Theobald  waived  the  right,  and  conceded  it  to  the  monks  of  Roches- 
ter, who  elected  Walter,  the  Archbishop's  brother,  at  the  time  Archdeacon 
of  Canterbury.     (Godwin,  De  Presul.,  p.  527;  Le  Neve's  Fasti,  p.  247.) 


PENENDEN   HEATH.  2l 

Rochester^  ''  to  set  in  order  tlie  things  that  were  wanting"  ^ 
after  seventeen  years  of  misrule  and  neglect  under  Bishop 
Siward. 

These  three  may  be  regarded  as  forming  the  judicial 
bench.  Besides  them,  probably  in  the  character  of  Asses- 
sors, were  some  of  the  county  magnates,  Richard  Fitz- 
Gilbert,  one  of  the  Conqueror's  special  comrades,  on  whom 
he  had  conferred,  with  many  other  manors,  that  of  Ton- 
bridge,  which  gave  him  his  Kentish  title,  and  subsequently 
that  of  Clare  in  Suffolk,  from  which  he  was  more  commonly 
known  as  Richard  de  Clare  r  Haimo  de  Crevequer,  too,  at 
the  time  Sheriff  of  Kent,  in  whom  the  King  reposed  so 
much  confidence  that  he  not  only  gave  him  the  lordship 
of  Leeds  Castle,  but  also  made  him  a  joint-Conservator  of 
Dover  Castle,  one  of  the  highest  posts  of  trust  in  his  newly 
acquired  kingdom. 

The  defendant  before  them  was  none  other  than  Odo, 
as  Earl  of  Kent,  the  King's  half-brother,  the  second 
most  powerful  man  in  the  kingdom, — if  even  second  to 
the  King  himself, — of  whom  mention  has  been  already 
made.  He  stood  there  to  give  account  for  his  deeds  of 
rapacity  and  injustice.^  With  him,  too,  were  many  of  the 
leading  Normans  who  had  benefitted  by  his  illegal  and 
unrighteous  acts  of  spoliation.     Here  were  Herbert  Fitz- 

'  "  Jlalis  ut  occurreret,  et  Ecclesite  res  in  meliorem  locum  redigeret, 
Arnostum,  Monachum  Beccensem,  cujus  aninii  virtutes  satis  habebat 
perspectas,  Lanfrancus  antistitem  liic  constituit.  (Godwin,  De  PresuL, 
p.  525.) 

-  In  Doyle's  ^aronag^e  he  is  styled  "Lord  of  Timbridge"  and  "Earl  of 
Clare,"  and  is  said,  on  the  authority  of  Ordericus  Vitalis,  to  have  been 
appointed  Chief  Joint-Justiciar  in  1074,  in  which  capacity  he  may  have  been 
present  at  Penenden. 

^  lugulph's  Chronicle,  p,  112.     Dc  Gray  Birch's  Domesday  Book,  p.  91. 


22  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Iyo, — probably  Ivo  Taillebois^  a  nepliew  of  the  Con- 
queror, wlio  was  noted  for  his  haughtiness  and  rapacity ; 
the  misshapen  Turold  of  Rochester,  "  whose  dAvarfish  form 
still  lives  in  the  Tapestry  of  Bayeux";^  Hugh  de  Montfort, 
so  highly  esteemed  and  trusted  by  the  King  that,  besides 
giving  him  114  Manors  in  Kent,^  he  made  him,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Odo,  one  of  the  Constables  of  Dover  Castle ;  Ealf 
de  Curva-Spina  (or  "  Crooked  Thorn  ") ;  William  d' Acres, 
and  other  Norman  chiefs  who  were  parties  to  the  wrongs 
that  had  been  perpetrated  under  his  auspices  and  his 
example. 

Against  this  formidable  array  —  the  Earl  of  Kent 
and  his  satellites — there  stood  up,  single-handed  and 
alone,  but  strong  in  the  justice  of  his  cause,  Lanfranc, 
the  famed  student,  but  still  more  famed  Advocate,  of  his 
native  Pavia,  with  his  Italian  face  and  lordly  bearing,^  to 
vindicate  the  Church's  claims  and  to  recover  her  rights. 
For  three  days  (says  the  chronicler)  did  he  argue  cause 
after  cause,  and  establish  claim  after  claim,  with  such 
profound  learning  and  suble  casuistry  as  to  call  forth 
the  astonishment  and  admiration  of  the  assembled  nobles, 
Norman  and  Saxon  alike. 

The  result  is  given  in  fuller  detail  by  Eadmer.  Some 
twenty-five  manors^  or  lordships,  with  the  advowsons 
attached,  did  he  recover  for  the  See  and  the  Priory  of 
Canterbury.  From  Odo  himself  he  rescued,  in  the  county 
of  Kent,  Reculver,  Sandwich,  Detling,  Maidstone,  Lyminge, 

1  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  iv.,  p.  364. 

*  Nicolas's  Historic  Peerage,  p.  331. 

^  Hook's  Lives  of  the  Archbishops,  ii.,  pp.  74,  79. 

^  Lanfrancus  maneria  25  per  Odoneni  Episcopum  Baiocensem,  fratrem  Regis 
uterinum,  erepta  ecclesia  restitueuda  curavit.  Godwin,  De  Presulibus  i.,  p.  61. 


PENENDEN   HEATH.  23 

Saltwood,  Newenden,  Preston  (near  Faversliam),  Sandhurst^ 
Eritli,  Orpington,  Eynsford,  and  Hayes  ;^  to  wliicli  may  be 
added,  from  the  Cott.  MSS.,  Folkestone,  Ricliborougli, 
StatenborougL.,  (in  Eastry)  Tilmanstone,  and  Witthersliam, 
Langport,  Penshurst.^  Nor  had  Odo  confined  himself  to 
archiepiscopal  manors  in  Kent.  There  were,  in  Middlesex, 
Harrow ;  in  Surrey,  Mortlake  ;  in  Buckinghamshire, 
Monks'  Risborough,  and  other  lesser  manors. 

Other  Sees  also  had  suffered  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  his 
Norman  hangers-on,  and  these  Lanfranc  claimed  back. 
For  the  See  of  Rochester  he  recovered,  and  restored  to 
Gundulph,  who  had,  meanwhile,  succeeded  Ernulph, 
Stoke-at-Hoo,  Denton,  Fawkham.  He  also  forced  Hugh 
de  Montfort  to  give  up  Rucking  and  Broke,  besides  other 
Manors  he  had  received  from  Odo;  and  wrested  from 
Ralph  de  Crookthorn  some  rich  pastures  in  the  proverbially 
fertile  Isle  of  Grain. 

In  every  case  he  restored  to  the  spoliated  Sees  the 
manors  of  which  they  had  been  so  unscrupulously  robbed  ; 
and,  moreover,  recovered  many  rights  and  dues  which 
had  for  a  time  been  wrested  from  the  Church,  and  in  some 
cases  from  the  Crown  itself.  The  proceedings  of  those 
memorable  days  were  then  submitted  to  the  King,  who  at 
once  approved  of  them,  and  required  that  they  should 
be  subsequently  sanctioned  by  the  General  Council  of 
the  whole  nation,  thus  securing  for  the  verdict  of  the 
Schiregemot  of  Kent  the  endorsement  of  the  Witenagemot 
of  England. 

^  Seldeni  Notes  ad  Eadmeri  Historiam,  pp.  198,  200.     See  Appendix  D. 

^  Cott.  MSS.,  Atigusttcs  ii. ,  36,  recently  brought  to  light  by  W.  'de  Gray 
Birch,  Esq.,  F.S.A.,  and  introduced  into  his  very  valuable  little  work  on 
Domesday  Book,  p.  295.     See  Appendix  E. 


24  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Well  did  the  Conqueror  show  on  that  day  at  least  that 
however  powerful^  or  however  near  to  himself,  were  the 
wrongdoers,  he  would  carry  out  to  the  full  the  oath  he  had 
taken  to  administer  true  judgment  and  justice  in  his  new 
kingdom.^ 

To  Lanfranc's  honour,  be  it  remembered,  he  gave  back, 
with  open  hand,  to  religious  uses  the  wealth  of  which  the 
Church  had  been  robbed.  On  his  own  Cathedral,  which 
he  found  in  a  dilapidated  state  from  the  recent  confla- 
gration, he  expended  a  vast  sum,  as  the  part  known  as 
Lanfranc's  Church  to  this  day  bears  witness ;  while  his 
munificence  also  extended  to  St.  Alban's  Abbey,  over 
which  he  had  placed  his  own  kinsman  and  comiaonachus 
of  Caen,  Paul,  as  its  first  Norman  Abbot.- 

Thus  ended  the  great  trial  which  involved  such  moment- 
ous issues   affecting  the  English   Church    and    its  rights. 

After  this  Penenden  Heath  relapsed  into  its  normal 
state  of  quietude  for  at  least  a  couple  of  centuries. 

It  was  on  this  Heath,  so  tradition  has  it,  in  the  year 
1381,  Wat  Tyler  found  a  rallying  point  for  his  Kentish 
malcontents,  gathering  here  the  nucleus  of  that  formidable 
body  of  some  10,000  men,  with  whom  he  for  a  time  suc- 
ceeded in  endangering  the  peace  of  the  City  of  London, 
and  the  very  person  of  the  feeble  Richard  II. 

Here,  too,  probably,  was  a  similar  scene  enacted,  on  a 
smaller  scale,  when  in  1450  Jack  Cade,  at  the  head  of 
the  self-styled  "  commons  of  England,"  gathered  from  the 
surrounding  villages  his    "  army,''    as    Shakespeare    con- 

1  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  iv.,  p.  364, 

2  Mattheiv  Paris  (1644),  p.  9. 


PENENDEN   HEATH.  25 

temptuously  calls  them,  describing  them  as  being 

' '  a  ragged  multitude 
Of  hinds  and  peasants,  naked  and  merciless," 

with  which  he  made  his  second  advance  on  London,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  extorting  from  the  scarcely  less  feeble 
Henry  VI.  a  removal  of  the  supposed  grievances  of  an 
over-taxed  country. 

This  inference  is  supported  by  the  names  which  appear 
in  the  Patent  Roll  of  those  who  were  subsequently  par- 
doned by  the  King.  So  many  having  come  from  Maid- 
stone and  the  neighboui'ing  villages,  Hollingbourne,  Bear- 
sted,  Thornham,  Boughton-Monchelsea,  Barming,  Ayles- 
ford,  and  Boxley  itself,^  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
Penenden  Heath,  the  only  open  space  suited  for  such  a 
purpose,  should  have  been  the  mustering-place  for  the 
contingents  from  these  parts. 

And  here,  once  more,  a  centur}^  later,  did  the  chivalrous 
yet  rash  Sir  Thomas  Wiat  sound  the  tocsin  of  rebellion 
against  Queen  Mary's  hateful  Spanish  alliance,  only  to 
forfeit  his  life,  and  for  a  time  to  rob  his  family  of  "  the 
gray  old  Castle  of  Allington"  and  many  a  goodly  manor 
besides. 

Thus  would  it  seem,  in  each  of  these  cases,  the  insur- 
gent bands  of  Kent  found  a  "  Lanrick  Mead"  at  Penenden 
Heath. 

^  From  Boxley  there  came,  among  the  gentry,  John  Rowe  ;  of  yeomen, 
John  Gouell,  Henry  Asshby,  Roger  Man,  Robert  Man,  Thomas  Gulley,  John 
Clynton,  John  Pastron,  John  "Welles,  Richard  Shymyng,  Henry  Dore,  James 
Burbage,  Robert  Burbage,  Richard  Snelgorre,  and  many  more  ;  of  masons, 
Richard  Sebris,  John  Joce  ;  and  of  husbandmen,  Burbages,  Farams,  etc. 
(List  of  Pardons  granted  to  the  followers  of  Cade,  given  by  W.  D.  Cooper, 
Esi[.,  F.S.A.,  in  Archccologia  Cantiana,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  233-69.) 


26  HISTOEY  OF  BOXLEY. 

Yet  again,  in  1828,  after  another  interval  of  250  years, 
was  this  Heath  the  scene  of  a  gathering,  more  orderly  no 
doubt,  and  more  constitutional,  but  scarcely  more  success- 
ful, when  not  less  than  50,000  men,  as  it  was  calculated, 
had  assembled  here  to  petition  Parliament  against  what 
was  commonly  known  as  the  (Roman)  ''  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation Bill,"  that  the  Protestant  Constitution  of  the  United 
Kingdom  might  be  preserved  entire  and  inviolate. 
Notwithstanding  this,  and  hundreds  of  other  similar 
protests,  the  Bill  was  passed  in  the  following  Sessions  of 
Parliament. 


CHAPTER  III. 
BOXLEY    ABBEY. 

THE  traveller  journeying  over  the  range  of  hills  known 
as  the  North  Downs,  which  lie  between  Rochester 
and  Maidstone,  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  sudden 
change  in  the  general  aspect  of  the  country.  Passing 
down  the  slope  of  Blue-bell  Hill,  and  entering  the  parish 
of  Boxley,  he  leaves  behind  him  on  his  right  the  rude, 
prehistoric  pile  of  massive  blocks  commonly  called  Kit's 
Cotty  House,  and  the  strange  group  of  unhewn  stones 
which  crop  up,  without  order  and  seemingly  without  num- 
ber\  in  the  neighbouring  field,  and  on  his  left  the  barren 
chalk  hillside,  when  his  eye  is  arrested  by  the  abrupt 
transition  from  the  scant  herbage,  and  low  brushwood, 
and  stunted  yews,  to  the  rich  pasture-land,  with  its  array 
of  goodly  elms,  spread  out  before  him.  He  sees  farm- 
buildings,  and  a  mill  with  its  shapely  lake,  telling  of  active 
and  well-requited  husbandry.  He  traces  out  broken  lines 
of  wall,  which  erst  enclosed  a  range  of  monastic  buildings ; 
he  sees  in  the  midst  of  modern  brickwork  the  piers  of  the 
old  Abbey  gateway,  and  a  still  substantial  Granary,  and  his 
mind  pictures  to  itself  the  day  when  all  that  spoliation  and 
time  have  now  left  in  ruin  constituted  the  heart  and  home 

^  So  irregularly  do  they  stand  that  it  is  said  that  no  one  has  been  known 
to  count  them  over  twice  with  the  same  result. 


28  HISTOEY   OF  BOXLEY. 

of  a  once  busy  Cistercian  monastery,  with  its  daily  round 
of  prayer,  and  labour,  and  almsdeeds. 

The  description  of  an  Abbey,  especially  of  one  that  has 
such  a  history  as  this  at  Boxley,  may  well  be  prefaced  by 
a  short  account  of  Monasteries  generally.  The  Monastic 
system,  be  it  remembered, — which  had  its  rise  in  Egypt, 
that  cradle  of  asceticism,  though  now  commonly,  and  per- 
haps not  unnaturally,  associated  with  traditions  of  super- 
stition and  imposture,  for  which,  alas,  Boxley  Abbey 
attained  to  so  unhappy  a  notoriety— had  its  birth  in  a 
spirit  of  deep  and  earnest  devotion.  The  belief  that  an 
ascetic  life  conduced  to  a  higher  spirituality — and  was 
therefore  more  acceptable  to  God — that  utter  seclusion 
from  the  world  and  all  its  attractions  and  distractions  was 
more  conducive  to  meditation — that  the  exercise  of  self- 
denial,  under  absence  of  all  means  of  self-indulgence, 
tended  to  form  characters  of  deeper  piety  and  greater 
usefulness — as  well  as  being  of  higher  mei*it — then,  that 
life  in  a  brotherhood,  under  a  rule,  was  more  beneficial  to 
a  man's  own  soul  as  well  as  to  the  souls  of  others — such 
thoughts,  such  hopes — shall  we  say  such  delusions  ?  sup- 
plied the  motive  to  Monastic  life.  Such  was  no  doubt  the 
fons  et  origo  of  the  Religious  Orders. 

On  such  a  conception,  erroneous  as  the  purer  faith  and 
knowledge  of  the  19th  Century  may  regard  it,  rose  Abbies, 
and  Priories,  and  Nunneries  or  Convents,  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
They  had  also  a  secondary  object ;  not  only  to  promote  and 
develop  the  spiritual  life  of  the  inmates,  but  also  to  meet 
the  bodily  and  intellectual  wants  of  the  outer  world.  In 
those  days  of  lawlessness  or  feudal  oppression  they  were 
the  "Cities  of  Refuge"  for  the  weak  and  down-trodden ; 
in  those  days  of  ignorance  they  supplied  the  Schools  for 


THE   ABBEY.  29 

tlie  young ;  tliey  were  the  Dispensaries  and  Hospitals  for 
the  sick;  and  the  "Store  Cities'^  in  times  of  famine  or 
want;  in  a  literary  point  of  view  they  were,  as  has  been 
well  said,  "  the  Treasuries  of  the  learning  that  was,  and 
the  Nurseries  of  that  which  was  to  be."  Nor  is  it  too 
much  to  say,  with  Dr.  Hook,  that  "  Christianity  must  have 
ceased  to  exist  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Monasteries."  ^ 

Of  the  four  principal  Orders,  the  Benedictine,  the  Cis- 
tercian, the  Carthusian,  and  the  Augustinian,  that  of  the 
Benedictines  was  the  earliest,  dating  from  the  seventh 
Centur}',  and  the  first  to  find  a  footing  in  England  in  the 
11th.  So  rapidly  did  they  everywhere  rise  in  favour  that 
in  spite  of  their  vows  of  personal  poverty,  endowments  and 
offerings  poured  in  so  freely  upon  them  that  they  soon 
became  wealthy  communities,  and  with  this  influx  of 
wealth  came  the  temptations  to  self-indulgence  and  luxury, 
until  in  the  11th  Century  some  of  the  more  devout  mem- 
bers of  the  Benedictine  Order  withdrew  from  the  main 
body  and  formed  themselves  into  a  separate  independent 
society,  resolved  to  carry  out  with  greater  strictness  and 
primitive  simplicity  the  rules  laid  down  by  their  founder 
St.  Benedict.  These  made  their  new  home  at  Citeaux 
(Cistercium),  near  Dijon,  and  were  thence  known  as 
Cistercians,  and  from  their  dress,  as  "  White  Monks."  - 

It  was  of  the  Cistercian  branch  of  the  Benedictines 
that  the  Abbey  at  Boxley  was  formed.  It  was  originally 
founded  by  William  d'Ypres,  a  natural  son  of  Philip, 
Viscount    d'Ypres,    who    had   accompanied   his    kinsman, 

^  Lives  of  the  Archbishops,  vol.  ii.,  p.  325. 

^  Weever  {Funereall  Monuments,  p.  289)  says  they  were  "  White  Monks  of 
St.  Bernard's  Order,"  which  was  clearly  an  error,  as  St.  Bernard  was  himself 
a  Benedictine,  of  Clairvaux. 


30  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Stephen  of  Blois,  on  liis  usurpation  of  the  English  throne^ 
and  had  been  raised  by  him  to  what  must  have  been 
regarded  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  nobles  as  the  highest  rank, 
the  Earldom  of  Kent.  Of  this  William  d'Ypres  it  is  said 
that,  being  anxious  to  relieve  a  conscience  burdened  with 
the  remembrance  of  great  barbarities  perpetrated  on  the 
helpless  inmates  of  the  Nunnery  of  Wherwell,  near  South- 
ampton, and  of  other  cruelties  of  which  he  had  been 
guilty  in  the  cause  of  his  usurping  kinsman  Stephen,  he 
desired  to  make  some  atonement  for  his  past  sins,  and 
in  that  spirit  resolved  to  found  an  Abbey  in  which  prayers 
might  be  offered  daily  for  his  soul.  Selecting  Boxley  as 
the  site,  he  introduced,  in  1146,  a  body  of  Cistercian 
monks^  from  Clairvaux,  in  Burgundy, 

It  is  of  this  old  Abbey  we  would  give  some  account. 
But  before  passing  within  its  precincts,  we  must  pause  to 
say  a  few  words  regarding  the  little  wayside  Chapel  of  St, 
Andrew,"  still  standing  outside  the  walls,  and  long  since 
converted  into  a  cottage.  It  once  had  its  own  chaplain,^ 
and  was   no    doubt    designed    for  the   use  of   the  devout 

1  Ipsius  (Regis  Stepliani)  assensu  fundatum  est  ccenobiuni  de  Boxeleia 
per  Willelmum  d'Ipres,  et  Cantuariensi  Ecclesie  concessit  et  confirmavit 
Berkeseres  et  feodum  Gaufridi  de  Ros.  Gervase  {Rolls  Scries),  ii.,  p.  77.  When 
Henry  II.  succeeded  to  his  rightful  inheritance  he  banished  William  d'Ypres, 
who  himself  assumed  a  monastic  life  at  the  Abbey  of  Laons,  in  Flanders,  and 
died  there  about  1163. 

*  A  legendary  connection  between  this  saint  and  the  neighbouring 
Pilgrims'  Road  may  perhaps  be  traced  in  the  story  which  Hone  (Every  Day 
Book,  i.,  1537)  gives  from  the  "Golden  Legend,"  of  a  Bishop  who  was  a 
devout  worshipper  of  St.  Andrew  being  assailed  by  the  devil  in  the  shape  of 
a  very  beautiful  woman,  and  being  rescued  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  his 
patron  saint  in  the  form  of  a  pilgrim. 

^  In  the  Will  of  John  Parsons  (Cant.  Consist.  Ct.,  iii.,  253)  is  the  clause, 
"  Item  lego  Capelle  Curato  S'ti  Andree  Apostoli  juxta  portam  exteriorem 
Monasterii,  Cujus  Parochianus  sum,  unum  Banner  Cloth  de  Ceriso, 


THE  ABBEY.  31 

pilgrims,  as,  on  their  way  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  of 
Canterbury,  they  threaded  their  way  along  the  narrow 
lane  that  runs  hard  by,  and  is  to  this  day  known  as  the 
Pilgrims'  Road.  In  the  process  of  adaptation  for  domestic 
use,  partitions  and  staircases  have  done  much  to  block  up 
and  conceal  many  details  of  interest  within,  yet  externally 
enough  remains  to  convey  a  very  fair  conception  of  its 
original  character.  Its  western  doorway  is  in  good  pre- 
servation, and,  better  still,  the  two  side-doors  on  the  north 
and  south.  In  the  western  gable  over  the  door,  the  space 
now  hideously  filled  in  with  modern  brick  suggests  the 
former  presence  of  the  square-headed,  three-light  window 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  now  built  into  a  recent  south 
wall ;  while  at  the  east  end  are  signs  no  less  distinct 
of  a  large  pointed  window,  the  space,  too,  filled  in  with 
brick.  There  is  also  the  little  priest's  door  near  the  east 
end  of  the  original  south  wall,  and  the  frame  work,  now 
filled  in,  of  two  squints,  or  hagioscopes,  for  the  use  of 
casual  passers-by  at  the  elevation  of  the  Host. 

The  entrance  to  the  grounds  of  the  Abbey  itself  is 
between  the  brick-faced  piers  of  a  stone  gateway,  into  a 
walled  enclosure  of  some  15  acres,  in  which,  with  the 
single  exception  of  a  goodly  barn,  to  be  mentioned 
presently,  not  a  vestige  of  the  original  buildings  remains. 
A  comfortable  modern  house  occupies  a  prominent  position. 
But  nothing  is  left  by  which  the  slightest  clue  can  be 
obtained  to  the  relative  positions  of  the  several  parts,  and 
such  seems  to  have  been  its  condition  above  a  Centuiy  ago. 

In  his  account  of  a  visit  paid  to  the  Abbey  in  1774, 
which  is  preserved  in  his  autograph  MS.  at  the  British 
Museum,^  Hasted  says  that  the  approach  had  originally 
1  Cott.  MSS.  5486,  p.  83. 


32  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"  been  by  a  double  arched  Gateway,  the  arches  of  both 
which  were  then  lying  in  ruins,  having  been  recently 
demolished."  In  corroboration  of  this  there  is  a  very 
rare  old  print,  without  date  or  name,  also  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,^  in  which  the  two  Gateways  are  repre- 
sented. Of  these  the  outer  one,  in  the  line  of  the  outer 
walls,  still  stands  with  its  brick  jambs,  but  without  the 
crown  of  the  arch ;  the  inner  Gateway,  nearer  the  present 
house,  has  quite  disappeared  ;  as  given  in  the  print,  it 
must  have  been  of  very  late  Tudor  period,  with  a  bold 
horizontal  label  or  weather-moulding,  without  ^^endants, 
and  with  a  shield  in  each  spandrel. 

Standing  within  these  now  ruined  and  crumbling 
boundary  walls — amid  banks  and  terraces  raised  out 
of  the  scattered  blocks  of  stone  that  erst  had  their 
places  in  the  various  parts  of  the  ancient  buildings,  but 
in  the  construction  of  which  all  the  old  lines  and  land- 
marks have  been  wholly  effaced — it  is  still  pleasant,  and 
not  wholly  unprofitable  withal,  to  build  anew  in  fancy 
the  once  noted,  if  eventually  notorious,  Abbey,  though 
nothing  now  remains  by  which  the  sevei-al  buildings 
can  be  traced  out  and  identified.  Still  the  Cistercian 
Monasteries  were  so  closely  built  on  the  same  plan  that 
by  analogy  and  comparison  it  is  not  impossible  to  sketch 
out  the  old  lines  of  building  and  to  present  to  the  mind^s 
eye   the  Monastic   pile  as  it  once  appeared. 

Along  the  South  side  we  might  imagine  the  Church 
standing  ;  from  it  towards  the  Eastern  and  Western 
ends,  branching  off  at  right  angles,  and  in  parallel  lines, 
the  more  secular  buildings  :  the  Chapter  House,  the 
Abbot's  apartments,  the  Dormitories  for  the  Monks,  those 

1  Additional  MSS.,  No.  32354,  p.  81. 


THE  ABBEY.  33 

for  Guests  or  Strangers,  &c.,  all  crossed,  and  closed  in  on 
the  Nortli  side,  by  tlie  Refectory,  or  Dining  Hall,  Kitclien, 
Butlery,  Cellar,  &c. ;  thus  enclosing  an  open  square,  round 
which  run  the  Cloisters,  or  covered  arcade,  supported  by 
richly  carved  and  moulded  piers  or  arches  of  stone  ;  within 
the  centre,  lying  open  to  the  sunshine,  yet  screened  from 
the  wind,  the  little  garden-plot,  or  Garth,  Here  in  summer 
and  winter  the  Monks,  during  intervals  of  work  or  prayer, 
passed  their  leisure  time,  reading,  or  teaching,  or  tending 
their  flowers.  Here  nature  and  art  combined  to  shed  a 
charm  over  their  "  cloistered  solitude." 

But  above  all  this  gi'oup  would  inse  the  Church — with  its 
graceful  steeple^  towering  over  all,  its  high  pitched  roof, 
its  Chancel,  Nave,  and  Transepts  standing  up  lofty  and 
conspicuous — the  most  substantial  portion  of  the  whole 
range,  and  the  most  richly  ornamented :  the  brethren,  having 
bestowed  on  it  the  best  of  their  labour  and  skill,  having 
lavished  all  the  art  and  taste  they  could  command  or 
purchase,  to  make  it  "  very  magnifical," — was  it  not 
their  pride  and  delight,  the  very  heart  of  their  religious 
system,  the  shrine  of  their  daily  lives  ? — its  richly  decorated 
windows  too,  filled  Avith  storied  panes,  telling  of  some 
mysterious  incident  in  the  legendary  life  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  to  whom,  like  all  Cistercian  Chapels,  this  would 
be  dedicated,  completing  the  group. 

But  as  to  internal  arrangements  we  are  not  left  to  draw 
so  entirely  on  fancy.  A  few  facts  are  forthcoming,  drawn 
out  of  the  recesses  of  the  Will  Department  at  Somerset 
House,  or  those  of  the  Prerogative  Court  at  Canterbury, 

1  In  the  grant  of  the  Abbey  to  Sir  Thomas  Wyat,  by  Henry  VIII.,  distinct 
mention  is  made  of  a  steeple.     Augm.  Office  Records,  Box  A,  55. 


34  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

to  enable  us  to  fill  up  the  picture  with  some  reliable  and 
interesting  details. 

There  was  a  Chapel  of  St.  Stephen  here,  for  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  old  Kentish  family  of  Frenyngham  appears 
to  have  endowed  a  Chantry,  as  also  one  at  Lose,  as  the 
burial  place  of  several  members  of  his  family.^ 

It  is  clear  too  that  men  of  mark  or  wealth  did  covet  for 
their  bodies,  after  life's  fitful  fever  had  run  its  course,  a 
resting-place  within  its  walls,  or  precincts.  Robert  Vineter 
(or  Yyntier),  who  had  endowed  the  Chantry  already 
alluded  to,  in  All  Saints  Church,  Maidstone,  the  owner  of 
the  Manor  still  bearing  his  name,  "  Vinters,"  ~  in  his  Will, 
dated  July  5,  1369,  expressed  the  desire  to  be  buried  at 
the  Abbey,  leaving  it  to  the  Abbot  to  assign  a  place.'''  In 
1385  (Sir)  Robert  de  Bourne  (or  Burne),  a  member  of  a 
goodly  family,  himself  the  Rector  of  Frekenham  in  Suffolk, 
who  seems  to  have  made  Boxley  his  home,  expressly  desired 
to  be  buried  within  the  Abbey  Chapel,  and  specified  the 
very  spot  he  chose— in  the  North  side,  between  the  altars 
of  the  Apostles  and  the  Martyrs ;  while  in  front  of  his  own 
tomb  he  wished  that  a  third  altar  should  be  erected  in 
honour  of  the  three  Virgins,  SS.  Katherine,  Margaret,  and 
Agatha,  and  the  three   Confessors,  SS.   Michael,  Martin, 


^  His  Will  rims  thus  :  that  he  will  endow  "duos  capellanoa  idoneos,  scilicet, 
unum  Monasterio  de  Boxele  ad  altare  S'ti  Stephani  coram  quo  corpora  Johannis 
Frenyngham  de  Lose,  Alicie  uxoris  ejus,  Radulphi  Frenyngham  militis,  patris 
ejusdem  Johannis,  et  Domine  Katherine  uxoris  predicti  Radulphi,  &c. ,  &c., 
sepulta  sunt  ethumata."     Addit.  Chart.,  British  Museum,  16474. 

-  See  page  4. 

*  Abp.  Langham's  Register  (Lambeth)  f.  120,  b,  "In  Monasterio  Beate 
Marie  de  Boxole,  ubi  Abbas  dicti  loci  sepulturam  in  Monasterio  assignare 
voluerit." 


THE  ARBEY.  35 

and  Dunstan.^  In  1489  one  Jolm  Kember,  who  described 
himself  as  living  within  the  Abbey-gate,  and  probably  was 
a  lay-brother  of  the  Monastery,  selected  his  burial-place 
within  the  Chapel,  before  the  image  of  the  Virgin.^  While 
in  1512  Sir  Thomas  Bourchier,  Knight,  a  nephew  of  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop,  desired  to  be  buried  in  the  ''cemetery 
of  the  Abbey,"  and  left  a  sum  of  money  to  "  edify  and 
make  a  Chapell  and  an  aultar,  and  to  found  a  Chapleyan 
to  pray  for  his  soul  and  the  souls  of  his  uncle"  and  other 
relatives.^  JL3JL5362 

This  Sir  Thomas  Bourchier  has  his  record  in  English 
history.  Being  an  object  of  suspicion  with  Richard  III., 
he  was  placed  under  the  command  and  eye  of  Sir  Thomas 
Brackenbury,  the  ill-famed  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  and 
was  summoned  to  the  King's  camp,  at  Bosworth  Field,  but 
on  the  very  eve  of  the  Battle  he  justified  Richard^s 
suspicion  by  escaping  with  several  other  Knights  into  that 
of  Richmond,  and  placing  himself  under  his  banner.'* 

But  of  all  this  nothing  now  remains  save  one  single  flat 
tombstone  in  the  green  sward,  without  a  name  or  mark, 
beyond  a  foliated  cross,  to  tell  its  tale ;  while  buried  in  the 
interior  of  a  comparatively  modern  dwelling-house  are  the 
massive  foundations  of  some  portion  of  the  main  building ; 
or,  inserted  in  some  side-wall,  as  a  relic  or  a  curiosity,  a 
fragment   of   stone  carving,  which  erst  formed  part  of  a 

'  "Will  of  Robert  de  Bourne,  clerk,  "  Infra  ecclesiam  Conventualem 
Monasterii  de  Boxle  in  medio  inter  altare  Ajiostol'  et  altare  Martyrum 
ex  parte  boreali,  &c."     Somerset  House,  Rous,  i. 

-  Will  of  John  Kember,  ibid.,  Milles  43.  The  name  long  continued  in  the 
parish,  which  was  indebted  to  one  of  the  family  for  a  charitable  bequest 
in  1611. 

^  Will  of  Sir  Thomas  Bourchier,  Knight,  Ibid.,  Fetiplace  15. 

■*  Gairdner's  Richard  III.,  p.  292.  Speed's  Historii,  p.  932.  Grafton's 
Chronicle  p.  843. 


36  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

jamb  or  spandrel  ;  or  tracery  of  a  long-since  ruthlessly 
demolished  doorway  or  window.  The  massive  and 
spacious  granary  or  barn^  alone  stands  in  its  entirety, 
retaining  its  original  character  and  use;  its  spaciousness, 
so  essential  a  feature  of  a  Cistercian  house,  implying  that 
it  was  designed  to  be  something  more  than  a  mere  garner 
for  the  use  of  the  small  staff  of  an  Abbot  and  eight  Monks, 
with  a  corresponding  body  of  labourers  to  till  the  land, 
but  rather  as  a  storehouse,  from  which  in  time  of  need  the 
wants  of  the  neighbouring  poor  might  be  supplied. 
Thus  much  regarding  the  Abbey  and  its  Church. 

While  probably  the  earliest  of  the  Benedictine 
Monasteries  in  England  was  that  of  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  that  of  Boxley  was  one  of  the  first  of  the 
Cistercian  Order.  And  though  virtually  independent  of 
each  other  in  their  internal  administration,  they  had,  as  will 
be  seen,  many  connecting  links  of  fraternal  intercourse, 
each  the  while  adhering  to  its  own  rules  and  work.  The 
Benedictines  at  Canterbury,^  cultivating  learning,  soon 
produced  from  among  their  Monks  two  of  England's  most 
valued  Chroniclers,  Eadmer  and  Gervase  ;  the  Cistercians 
at  Boxley  rather  applied  themselves  to  the  tillage  of  the 
soil,  and  with  no  little  success,  as  the  appearance  of  the 
neighbouring  lands  to  this  day  testifies.^ 

^  Recently  well  restored  by  its  present  owner,  Major  Mawdistley  Best,  of 
Park  House. 


-  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  where  in  these  pages  mention  is  made  of 
the  Canterbury  Monastery,  the  Benedictine  priory  of  Christ  Church  con- 
nected with  the  Cathedral  is  meant,  and  not,  unless  specially  named,  the 
more  famed  St.  Augustine's  Abbey,  which  was  also  Benedictine. 

^  It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  at  the  present  day  there  exists  in 
the  Charnwood  Poorest,  near  Lutterworth,  a  Cistercian  ]\Ionastery  (almost  on 
the  site  of  the  Garendon  Abbey,  which  was  dissolved  by  Henry  VIII.)  which, 
true  to  its  character,  has  turned  a  wilderness  into  a  garden. 


THE  ABBEY.  37 

From  its  earliest  days  the  Abbey  found  friends. 
Foremost  among  them  came  Richard  I.  In  1189  he 
conferred  on  it  in  "  Franc-almoyne "  the  Manor  of  Boxley.^ 
Henry  III.,  in  1253,  confirmed  the  grant,  and  in  addition 
granted  to  it  the  right  of  holding  a  weekly  market  (no 
slight  privilege  in  those  feudal  days)  at  a  place  then  and 
still  known  as  "  Farthings/'  and  now  represented  by  a 
group  of  cottages  near  the  Abbey  walls.  In  the  following 
century  considerable  accession  of  land  was  obtained  either 
by  gift,  or  bequest,  or  purchase.  Neighbouring  land- 
owners dedicated  portions  of  their  estates  to  its  support. 
For  instance  the  family  of  Burleghe  were  liberal  benefactors. 
Margery,  the  daughter  of  Laurence  Burleghe,"  in  the  year 
1316,  granted  some  in  "  a  place  called  Burleghe,''  no 
doubt  that  now  known  as  Boarley,  the  value  of  which 
would  be  greatly  enhanced  by  its  carrying  the  Abbey  land 
up  to,  and  above,  the  Pilgrims'  Road  and  including  the 
fountain  head  of  the  spring  which  flowing  down  from  the 
hill  side  provided  the  water  supply  for  the  Abbey  itself. 
Then  the  same  year  another  member  of  the  family, 
Richard,  the  son  of  Reginald  Borleghe,'^  made  a  further 
grant  of  a  place  called  Maylefelde.  A  still  further  grant 
of  adjoining  land  was  made  by  a  married  sister,  Margery 
Loth,^  a  few  years  later. 

About  this  time  appears  the  name  of  Alexander  KumJia, 
as  contributing  a  piece  of  land,  comprising  "  a  Mill  and 
ten  acres  of  Wareland."'     There  were  added  at  different 

1  Harleian  MSS.,  6748,  16. 

2  Calendar  of  Ancient  Deeds  (Record  Office),  10  Edw.  II.,  B.  444. 

3  Ibid,  B.  446. 

*  Ibid,  Ibid,  B.  457. 
5  Ibid.  B.  646. 


38  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

times  those  of  Horpole  (now  Harple)  and  Weavering,  with 
Tattelmel,  and  Burcheland.^ 

Passing  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Parish  itself,  we  find 
the  Abbey  so  favourably  regarded  as  to  be  made  the 
recipient  of  important  grants  of  land,  tithes,  and  Advow- 
sons,  even  at  a  distance,  especially  in  the  fertile  Isle  of 
Sheppey,  and  that  of  Grain.  Two  at  least  of  these  testify  to 
the  esteem  in  which  the  Abbey  was  held.  In  the  Isle  of 
Sheppey  is  the  Parish  of  East  Church.  The  revenues  of 
this  Parish  had  been  apjDropriated  by  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Denys,  in  Flanders,  and  misused  ;  whereupon  Abp.  Hubert 
Walter,  so  early  as  the  year  1200,  had  planned  to  confer 
them  on  Boxley  Abbey,  in  recognition  of  their  liberal 
exercise  of  hospitality  towards  all  comers,  especially 
Pilgrims.  However,  years  passed  on  and  the  plan  was 
not  carried  out,  till  in  1313  Henry  de  Estria,  the  energetic 
Prior  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  acting,  seJe  vacante, 
on  the  death  of  Abp.  Winchelsea,  gave  effect  to  the  wish 
of  Abp.  Hubert  Walter,  and  the  transfer  of  the  Manor 
and  the  Advowson  was  completed,^  to  meet  the  heavy 
calls  on  the  Boxley  hospitality.  How  often  the  Abbey 
exercised  the  right  of  patronage  thus  conferred  is  not 
known;  the  one  single  instance  recorded  in  the  Lambeth 
Registers  was  on  a  vacancy  occurring  in  1323  when  they 
presented  Galfridus  (Geoffrey)  de  Freusthope  "  ad  vicariam 
Ecclesie  de  Estchirche  in  Scapeya."'^ 

A  Century  later,  in  1430,  a  member  of  the  influential 
family  of  Cheyne,  or  Cheney,  of  Shurland,  made  a  grant 

1  Patent  Eolls,  9  Henry  V.,  p.  i.,  m.  5.     P.  R.,  9  Henry  VI.,  p.  ii.,  m.  4. 

"  Confirmed  by  Abp.  Reynolds,  and  recited  by  "  Inspeximus, "  Abp. 
Warham's  Register,  f.  135. 

3  Abp.  Reynold's  Register,  f.  2.50,  b.,  and  Patent  Rolls,  9  Henry  VI., 
part  ii. ,  ui.  4, 


THE  ABBEY.  39 

of  land  to  the  Abbey  on  condition  "that  the  Abbot  and 
Convent  should  transfer  the  Church,  which  they  hold  to 
their  own  use,  and  which  is  nearly  in  ruins,  on  account  of 
the  poorness  of  the  ground  on  which  it  is  built,  with  the 
consent  of  Henry  (Chichele),  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
to  the  ground  now  granted  to  them,  on  which  they  shall 
construct  anew  the  Parish  Church  of  the  said  Parish." 

Another  grant  was  made  to  the  Abbey  on  the  neigh- 
bouring Isle  of  Grrain.  The  Manorial  rights  of  the  Parish 
of  Stoke,  at  Hoo,  had  been  conferred  by  Eadgar,  King  of 
Kent,  in  762,  on  the  Priory  of  St.  Andrew,  Rochester,  and 
was  among  those  recovered  by  Lanfranc  in  1076,  from  the 
clutches  of  Odo,  Bishop  of  Baieux.  In  the  Parish  lived 
a  family  named  Malemayues,  their  property  still  known 
as  Malman's  Hall.  A  member  of  the  family,  Ralph 
Malemayne,  became  a  Monk  of  St.  Andrew's  Priory,  and 
granted  to  it  the  Tithes  also  of  Stoke,  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  I.,  with  whom  the  Manor,  Advowson  and  Tithes 
remained  until  the  year  1244,  when  in  acknowledgement 
of  the  exemplary  character  and  hospitality  of  Boxley 
Abbey,  Richard  de  Wendover,  Bishop  of  Rochester,^ 
sanctioned  the  transfer  to  it  of  the  Manor  and  Tithes 
of  that  Parish.  Sixty  years  after,  the  Malemaynes,  still 
retaining  the  ancient  property,  obtained  from  Abbot 
Robert  of  Boxley,  exercising  it  would  seem  a  power 
which  rather  belonged  to  the  Diocesan,  granted  to  Sir 
John  Malemayne  the  privilege  of  constructing  an  Oratory 
attached  to  his  Manor  house  for  the  use  of  himself  and 

1  "  Ricardus  Dei  Gratia,  Episcopus  Roffensis,  &c.,  &c.,  dedimus  et  con- 
cessimus  Abbati  et  Conventui  de  Boxele  ecclesiam  Parochialem  de  Stokes,  &c., 
quod  domus  de  Boxele  passim  et  sine  delictu  personaliter  exhibit  universis 
ad  eandem  domum  coiifluentibus  hospitalitatem,  &c."     Reg.  Roff.,  p.  620. 


40  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

family  when  prevented  by  illness  or  weather  from 
attending  the  services  of  the  Parish  Church,  from  which 
they  were  so  distant.^ 

From  a  much  more  humble  source  came  yet  another 
grant  in  the  same  tract,  Geoffrey,  the  son  of  John,  fabr 
(the  Smith),  with  Edith  his  wife,  gives  to  the  Abbey  a 
piece  of  land  in  Ellyottefelde,  in  the  Yill  of  St.  Wereburge, 
at  Hoo. 

At  a  very  early  period  of  the  Abbey^s  existence  an 
official  seal  would  seem  to  have  been  in  use.  The 
impression  of  a  small  one  has  been  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum,  attached  to  a  Charter  of  the  loth  Century,-  in  the 
form  of  a  "  vesica  piscis,^'  representing  the  Abbot  in  full 
pontificals,  holding  a  pastoral  staff  in  his  right  hand,  a 
book  in  his  left,  with  the  inscription  running  round. 

Attached  to  another  Charter  of  the  year  1336^  is  a 
much  finer  and  larger  seal  of  very  elaborate  workman- 
ship, though  unfortunately  not  quite  perfect.  Enough 
however  remains,  with  the  aid  of  other  fragments  of  the 
same  seal  on  other  Charters,  to  admit  of  the  whole  design 
being  traced  out.  On  the  obverse,  under  a  three-arched 
canopy,  or  arcade  of  three  pointed  arches,  trefoiled, 
pinnacled,  and  crocheted,  supported  by  a  column  of 
tabernacle  work  on  either  side,  each  column  having  in 
the  middle  a  small  quatrefoiled  opening  containing  the 
head  of  a  Saint,  probably  SS.  Benedict  and  Bernard;  the 
Virgin  sits  on  a  richly  carved  throne,  wearing  a  crown, 

^  Registnim  Eoffense,  p.  623. 

^  Additional  Charters  (British  Museum),  Ixv.  4. 

^  Additional  Charters,  20,008,  refeiring  to  a  lease  of  land  in  Hollingborne, 
granted  by  the  Prior  and  Chapter  of  Canterbury  to  the  Abbot  and  Convent 
of  Boxley. 


THE  ABBEY.  41 

and  holding  in  her  right  hand  a  cinquefoiled  rose,  while 
on  her  left  knee,  supported  by  her  left  arm,  is  seated  the 
child  Jesus,  his  head  surrounded  by  a  nii)thi(s,  his  right 
hand  raised  up  as  in  the  act  of  benediction,  his  left  hand 
holding  an  orb.  At  the  base,  under  a  wide  trefoiled  arch, 
are  the  faces  of  three  Monks,  in  profile,  as  though  raised 
in  prayer,  while  on  either  side  of  the  field,  outside  the 
columns  of  the  canopy,  is  a  branch  of  a  box-tree,  as  though 
referring  to  the  origin  of  the  name  of  the  village.  The 
legend  runs  round  in  two  rings ;  the  outer  one  is — 

'*  ^xgillum  [Commjunc  (BaV  WU  ^atit  be 

the  inner  one — 

"^xt  limta  [Oirata]tibt  (lax[hi  WirQa  iMta."] 

On  the  reverse  appear  two  Abbots,  (SS.  Benedict  and 
Bernard)  each  standing  in  a  trefoiled  niche  or  recess  of 
a  double  canopy,  holding  in  one  hand  a  pastoral  staff 
curved  outwards,  and  in  the  other  a  book,  the  canopy 
supported  by  panelled  buttresses  on  either  side,  and  by  a 
light  column  in  the  centre  separating  the  two  figures,  with 
a  branch  of  a  box-tree  on  the  field  on  each  side,  as  in  the 
obverse.  The  legends  here  are  less  perfect,  also  run  in 
two    circles,    and    are   thus    conjectured  :    on    the  outer — 

["CSui   lautrant    lie   €t]Mmht   S:uos 
lntU]ti[t]cti>," 

and  on  the  inner — 

''^ropinam  |Fadt0  1B£r[narti^]  ^ariam/'^ 

Nor    was    the    Abbey    all    this  time   only  the   favoured 

^  The  author  is  indebted  to  W.  de  Gray  Birch's  Catalogue  of  Seals,  p.  453, 
for  these  su<,'gested  inscriptions,  and  to  him  and  to  the  principal  Librarian  of 
the  British  Museum  for  permission  to  use  the  seals. 


42  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

recipient  of  benefactions  and  endowments  to  be  expended 
on  their  own  estate.  As  tlieir  coffers  filled  and  their 
influence  increased,  they  adopted  the  course  not  uncommon 
among  the  more  wealthy  Eeligious  Houses,  of  founding  a 
daughter  Priory  out  of  the  superfluity  of  their  revenues. 
In  a  remote  corner  of  the  Parish  of  Salehurst,  in  Sussex, 
where  a  bridge  crossed  the  river  Rother,  from  whence  the 
little  Hamlet  took  the  name  of  Eotherbridge,  they  selected 
a  spot  for  their  new  Priory.  It  needed  but  the  change  of 
three  letters  to  alter  the  old  name  into  that  which  would 
supply  a  permanent  association  with  one  so  highly  vene- 
rated by  the  whole  of  the  Cistercian  Order,  as  St.  Robert, 
the  first  Abbot  of  St.  Michael  de  Tonnerre,  and  the  real 
founder  of  the  brotherhood  at  Citeaux.  So  Eotherbridge 
became  Uohertl  Pons,  or  Robertsbridge.^ 

In  other  quarters  too  we  find  them  giving  of  tlieir 
abundance  to  promote  what  in  that  day  was  ignorantly 
regarded  as  most  acceptable  to  God,  and  beneficial  to  the 
souls  of  their  fellow  men.  They  endowed  with  six  marks 
yearly  a  Chantry  at  the  neighbouring  Church  of  Hailing, 
and  with  a  similar  sum  one  at  Horsmunden.- 

Once,  at  least,  was  the  Abbey  honoured  by  the  presence 
of  Royalty,  an  event  which  demands  special  notice,  bott 
because  a  writer  on  Kentish  history  has  called  it  in 
question,-'    and    also    because    it    explains    an    important 

^  Horsfield's  Sussex,  p.  582.  ^  Registrum  Roffense,  pp.  400,  429. 

^  Brayley,  in  his  Beauties  of  England  and  Wales  (Kent,  p.  1236),  says  that 
Pliilipott,  Hasted,  and  Harris  are  all  in  error  in  supposing  that  Edward  II. 
issued  any  such  Charter,  and  that  the  only  Charter  the  King  issued  to  the 
City  at  this  time  was  one  exempting  the  citizens  from  all  future  levies  for 
carrying  on  war  out  of  the  City,  and  that  that  Charter  was  dated  from 
Aldermanston.  ISTow,  the  Aldermanston  Charter  was  dated  on  December  12, 
whereas  the  one  conferring  the  right  to  elect  their  own  Mayor  was  dated  from 
Boxley  on  October  25  preceding  {Historical  Charters  of  the  City  of  London, 
ed.  Birch,  1887,  p.  51).     See  Appendix  F. 


THE   ABBEY.  43 

change  in  the  ciyic  government  of  London.  When,  in 
1321,  Edward  II.  was  marching  on  Leeds  Castle  to  inflict 
condign  punishment  on  the  seneschal  (a  Colepeper)  for 
refusing  to  admit  Queen  Isabel  into  her  own  Castle  for  a 
night's  lodging,  on  her  pilgrimage  to  Canterbury,  he 
halted  here,  and  from  hence  issued  a  most  important 
Charter  to  the  City  of  London.  The  Charter  granted  by 
King  John  had  allowed  the  substitution  of  the  title 
"  Mayor"  for  the  previous  one  of  "  Bailiff"  to  its  chief 
officer  j  but  the  appointment  to  the  office,  though  nominally 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  citizens,  practically  lay  with  the 
Crown,  and  was  held  at  the  King's  pleasure,  being  often 
retained  for  life,  the  first  mayor,  Henry  Fitz-Alwyn, 
holding  it  for  about  twenty-four  years.  Now,  Edward  II., 
moved  with  special  gratitude  to  the  City  for  their  ready 
aid  in  sending  him  levies  in  his  attack  on  Leeds  Castle, 
conferred  on  them  a  Charter,  giving  them  the  free  choice 
of  their  Mayor  from  their  own  body,  subject  only  to  the 
king's  approval ;  and  this  charter^  was  dated  from  Boxley, 
presumably  from  the  Abbey,  as  being  the  only  house 
capable  of  giving  fitting  reception  to  the  King. 

This  visit  belongs  to  the  earlier  history  of  the  Abbey  : 
again,  when  its  days  were  nearly  numbered,  it  received 
within  its  walls  another  visitor  of  scarcely  less  dignity  and 
importance,  one  of  the  "  Princes  of  the  Roman  Church," 
Cardinal  Campeggio,  whom  the  Pope  had  sent  over  to 
England,  as  Legate  a  latere,  to  endeavour  to  adjudicate 
with  Archbishop  Warham  on  the  momentous  question  of 
the  King's  divorce.  He  arrived  in  England  in  1518,  and 
having  taken  part  in  a  gorgeous  ceremonial  at  Canterbury, 
on  his  way  to  London,  halted  for  one  night  at  the  Abbey 

'  Patent  Rolls,  15  Edw.  II.,  part  i.,  m.  2. 


44  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

at  Boxley,  to  liave  an  interview  with  the  Primate^  who  was 
staying  there. ^  But  Cardinal  and  Primate  combined  were 
powerless  before  the  imperious  Henry. 

One  incident  in  the  history  of  the  Abbey,  (if  the  state- 
ment of  one  of  the  parties  cencerned  is  to  be  accepted), 
would  seem  hardly  to  redound  to  the  credit  of  the  Abbey." 
Juvenal  has  said,  "  Crescit  amor  nummi  quantum  ipsa 
pecunia  crescit ; "  and  perhaps  the  acquisition  of  land 
may  have  produced  what  is  now-a-days  called  "  land- 
hunger/'  and  have  made  them  the  less  scrupulous  in  their 
mode  of  obtaining  it.  In  Reglstrum  Roffenne  it  appears  as 
a  formal  complaint  made  by  Hugo,  Count  of  St.  Paul,  or 
St.  Pol,  that  his  Bailiff  had  been  negociating  with  the 
Canons  of  the  Lesnes  Abbey,  near  Erith,  for  the  purchase 
of  a  piece  of  land  [e.ssartum)  near  Dartford,  and  a 
messenger  had  been  sent  to  apprise  him  of  the  sale  ;  but 
the  Monks  of  Boxley,  also  desiring  the  land,  had  inter- 
cepted, and  b}^  bribes,  delayed  the  messenger,  and  came 
direct  to  him  in  Normandy  with  an  offer  for  the  land,  and 
he,  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  Bailiff's  action,  had  accepted 
their  offer.  But,  directly  he  discovered  the  trick  that  had 
been  played  upon  him,  he  indignantly  repudiated  the  sale 
and  cancelled  it.  Charity  may  suggest  that  this  account 
given  by  the  Count  was  one-sided  and  perhaps  exaggerated, 
and  simply  a  case  of  two  parties  trying  to  outbid  each 
other.  It  were  sad  indeed  if  a  ''Religious  House" 
descended    to    a    course    which    even    a    Pagan    Satirist 

1  Patent  Rolls,  11  Henry  VIII.,  pt.  2,  m.  21.  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign 
and  Domestic,  vol.  ii.  p.  1336  (No.  4333). 

2  With  this  qualification  the  author  feels  justified  in  giving  in  Appendix  G 
the  full  text  of  the  entry  in  the  Register,  Tenqwral.  Episcop.  Rogensuim., 
quoted  in  Registrum  Roffcnse,  p.  316,  and  very  inaccurately  translated  by 
Lambarde,  Perambul.  235. 


THE  ABBEY.  45 

denounces  as  that  wliicli   a  corrupt  minded  unprincipled 
man  mig'lit  justify  : 

"  Kecte  si  possis  ;  si  non,  quocunque  modo  rem." 

The  connection  of  Boxley  Abbey  with  its  daughter 
Priory  of  Robertsbridg-Cj  and  that  of  Chi'ist  Church, 
Canterbury,  already  alluded  to,  would  seem  to  have  pro- 
duced strangely  opposite  results.  The  Chapter  Records 
divulge  the  tale  that  the  more  rigid  discipline  of  the 
Cistercians  here  enforced  was  from  time  to  time  taken 
advantage  of  by  the  Canterbury  Benedictines  for  a  twofold 
purpose.  When,  for  instance,  a  Monk  at  Canterbury 
found  the  greater  laxness  of  the  rule  there  detrimental 
to  the  well-being  of  his  soul,  he  would  himself  apply  to  be 
transferred  to  Boxley,  or  Robertsbridge  ;  ^  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  troublesome,  intractable  brother  would  now 
and  again  be  sent  from  Canterbury  to  Boxley,  in  the  hope 
that  the  sterner  discipline  might  subdue  his  spirit.  A 
striking  illustration  of  the  latter  process  is  given  in  the 
case  of  one  William  Powns,  a  Monk  of  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  who  had  been  guilty  of  fragrant  irregularity 
and  insubordination,  and  who,  but  for  the  intervention 
of  influential  friends,  would  have  been  subjected  to  fai 
severer  punishment,  had  at  their  pleading  his  sentence 
coinmuted  to  a  transference  from  the  more  lax  and  easy- 
going fraternity  of  the  Benedictines  to  the  more  strict 
and  laborious  regime  of  the  Cistercians.  In  the  one  case 
Boxley  Abbey  would  serve  as  a  "  Retreat ;  "  in  the  other 
as  a  "Reformatory."" 

It  is  from  these  points  of  view,  and  in  its  earlier  days, 

1  Canterbury  Chapter  Rccorch.  G.  123,  &c. 

2  (Sedc  Facante  Records  of  the  Canterbury  Chapter,  N.  177,  179.  Litteroe 
Cantuarienses  {&\\^)]}a,vA)  111,  172,  et  seq. 


46  HISTORy   OF   BOXLEY. 

that  both  as  a  religious  house  and  as  a  political  influence, 
Boxley  Abbey  appears  at  its  brightest  and  best. 

Another  side  to  this  picture  of  Boxley  Abbey,  and  a  far 
less  pleasing  one  to  contemplate,  is  presented  in  the  pages 
of  later  Chroniclers,  and  it,  too,  if  indirectly,  may  to  some 
extent  be  traced  to  its  proximity  and  connection  with 
Canterbury  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries. 

Pilgrimages  had  come  to  be  the  order  of  the  day,  the 
rage  of  the  times.  Some  saintly  relic,  however  small,  was 
everywhere  eagerly  sought  for  to  supply  an  attraction  for 
the  piety  and  liberality  of  the  devout.  Now  Canterbury 
eclipsed  all  other  '^holy  places"  in  England  in  the 
possession  of  the  very  body  of  the  martyred  Becket,  '^  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury,"  as  he  was  reverently  styled.  To 
his  shrine  thronged  crowds  of  votaries — royal,  noble,  and 
plebeian,  "  earl  and  churl "  alike ;  into  the  Canterbury 
coffers  flowed  streams  of  costly  offerings,  to  the  great 
gain,  as  well  as  the  glory,  of  the  Monastery.  All  that 
Boxley  could  offer  at  first  appears  to  have  been  only  "  the 
little  finger  of  St.  Andrew  encased  in  silver,"  until  a  strange 
mysterious  chance  brought  a  double  attraction — nothing 
less  than  that  miraculous  touch-stone  of  purity,  the  image 
of  St.  Rumwald,  sometimes  called  St.  Grrumbald,  and  more 
wondrous  still, — what  was  itself  a  standing  miracle, — the 
crucifix,  seemingly  instinct  with  life  and  knowledge,  com- 
monly known  as  "The  Rood  of  Grace."^ 

Before  these  the  finger  of  St.  Andrew  became  quite  a 
secondary   object  of  worship ;  ~  indeed,  so   much  did  the 

1  In  the  will  of  Rest  Redfyn,  widow  of  Nicholas  Redfyn,  of  Queenborough 
(Canterbury  Registry),  a  bequest  is  made  to  the  "  Roode  of  Grace,"  which  is 
termed  a  "woman  of  wax,"  i.e.,  a  waxen  figure  of  the  Virgin.  {Arch. 
Cantiana,  xi.,  62). 

*  It  was  eventually  paivned  for  £40. 


THE  ABBEY.  47 

fame  and  importance  of  the  Abbey  centre  in  this  Crucifix 
that  the  original  style  of  the  dedication  ''  to  St.  Mary  the 
Virgin"  was  soon — so  early  at  least  as  1412 — absorbed  into 
that  of  "the  Abbey  of  the  Rood  of  Grace"  {Ahhatia 
Sande  Grucis  de  (rratiis)}  And  even  the  glory  of  the 
shrine  of  St.  Thomas  began  to  pale  into  insignificance  in 
the  eyes  of  the  devout  pilgrims,  whose  journey  towards 
Canterbury  was  doubtless  often  arrested  by  the  greater 
attraction  of  Boxley.  Thus  did  the  spirit  of  greed  creep 
into  that  poverty-vowed  community,  and  find  in  success, 
acting  on  the  prevalent  ignorance  and  superstition,  an 
excuse  for,  and  justification  of,  the  adoption  of  a  "  pious 
fraud." 

At  what  exact  time  these  images  made  their  appearance 
in  the  Abbey  Chapel  is  not  recorded.  Indeed,  the  origin 
and  history  of  St.  Rumbald  is  a  perfect  blank ;  not  so  that 
of  "the  Rood  of  Grace."  To  old  William  Lambarde  we  are 
indebted  for  an  account  of  the  circumstances  under  which 
it  arrived  here.  And  lest  the  very  strangeness  of  his 
recital  should  lay  him  open  to  the  charge  of  invention, 
he  prefaces  his  narrative  with  the  declaration  that  he  "  set 
it  downe  in  such  sorte  onely  as  the  same  was  sometime  by 
themselves  published  in  print  for  their  estimation  and 
credite,  and  yet  remaineth  deeply  imprinted  in  the  mindes 
and  memories  of  many  on  live  (alive)  to  their  everlasting 
reproche,  shame,  and  confusion."  Thus  Lambarde's 
account,  now  so  vehemently  repudiated  by  modern 
Romanists,  comes  to  us  on  the  testimony  of  the  monks 
themsslves — a  testimony  to  which,  at  any  rate  according 
to  him,  they  had  set  their  own  hand  and  seal. 

The    story    as   told    by   him    in   his    quaint  yet  graphic 

1  Close  Roll,  10  Henry  VI.,  m.  5. 


48  HISTOEY   OF  BOXLEY. 

language,    under    the    marginal    title    "  The     ungratious 
Roode  of  Grace'^  runs  tlius/ 

'^It  cliaunced  (as  tlie  tale  is)  that  upon  a  time  a  cunning 
Carpenter  of  our  countrie  was  taken  prisoner  in  the  warres 
between  us  and  Fraunce,  who  (wanting  otherwise  to 
satisfy  for  his  ransome,  and  having  good  leysure  to  devise 
for  his  deliverance)  thought  it  best  to  attempt  some  curious 
enterprise,  within  the  compass  of  his  owne  art  and  skill,  to 
make  himself  some  money  withal ;  and  therefore  getting 
together  fit  matter  for  his  purpose  he  compacted  of  wood, 
wyer,  paste,  and  paper,  a  Roode  of  such  exquisite  arte  and 
excellencie  that  it  not  onely  matched  in  comelyness  and 
due  proportion  of  the  partes  the  best  of  the  common  sort, 
but  in  straunger  motion,  varietie  of  gesture,  and  nimble- 
ness  of  joints,  passed  all  other  that  before  were  seen ;  the 
same  being  able  to  bow  down  and  lift  up  itselfe,  to  shake 
and  stirre  the  handes  and  feete,  to  nod  the  head,  to  rolle 
the  eies,  to  wag  the  chaps,  to  bend  the  browes,  and  finally 
to  represent  to  the  eie,  both  the  proper  motion  of  each 
member  of  the  body,  and  also  a  lively,  expresse,  and 
signiSt;ant  shew  of  a  well  contented  or  displeased  minde, 
by  ting  the  lip  and  gathering  a  frowning  fro  ward  and 
disdainful  face,  when  it  would  pretend  oft'ence,  and 
shewing  a  most  milde,  amyable  and  .smyling  cheere  and 
countenance  when  it  would  seeme  to  be  well  pleased.  This 
carpenter  having  obtained  his  liberty,  came  over  into  the 
Realme  of  purpose  to  better  his  merchandise,  and  layde 
the  image  upon  the  backe  of  a  jade  that  he  drave  before 
him.  Now  when  he  was  come  so  farre  as  to  Rochester  on 
his  way,  he  waxed  drie  by  reason  of  travaile,  and  called  at 
an   ale  house    for    drinke    to    refreshe   him,    suifering   his 

1  Perambulations  of  Kent  (1576),  p.  227. 


THE   ABBEY.  49 

liorse     nevertheless    to    go    forwarde     alone     along    tlie 
Citie. 

"  This  jade  was  no  sooner  out  of  site,  but  he  missed  the 
streight  western  way  that  his  master  intended  to  have 
gone,  and  turning  Southe,  made  a  great  pace  toward 
Boxley,  and  being  driven,  as  it  were,  by  some  divine  furie, 
never  ceased  jogging  till  he  came  at  the  Abbay  Church 
door,  where  he  so  beat  and  bounced  with  his  heeles,  that 
divers  of  the  Menkes  heard  the  noise,  came  to  the  place  to 
knowe  the  cause,  and  (marvelling  at  the  straungeness  of 
the  thing)  called  the  Abbat  and  the  Convent  to  beholde  it. 

"  These  good  men  seeing  the  liorse  so  earnest,  and 
discerning  what  he  had  on  his  backe,  for  doubt  of  deadly 
impietie,  opened  the  doore ;  which  they  had  no  sooner 
done,  but  the  horse  rushed  in  and  ranne  m  great  haste 
to  a  piller  (which  was  the  verie  place  where  this  image 
was  afterwarde  advaunced)  and  there  stopped  himself  and 
stoode  still. 

"  Now  while  the  Menkes  were  busie  to  take  off  the  lode, 
in  cometh  the  carpenter  (that  by  great  inquisition  had 
followed)  and  he  challenged  his  owne  ;  the  Monke.,  loth 
to  lose  so  beneficial  a  stray,  at  the  first  make  some  deniall 
but  afterward,  being  assured  by  all  signes  that  he  was  the 
verie  Proprietarie,  they  graunt  him  to  take  it  with  him. 
The  carpenter  then  taketh  the  liorse  by  the  head,  and  first 
assayeth  to  leade  him  out  of  the  Church  ;  but  he  would  not 
stirrre  for  him.  Then  beateth  he  and  striketh  him,  but 
the  jade  was  so  restie  and  fast  nailed,  that  he  woulde  not 
once  remove  his  foote  from  the  piller.  At  the  last  he 
taketh  off  the  image,  thinking  to  have  carried  it  out  by 
itselfe,  and  then  to  have  led  the  horse  after,  but  that  also 
cleaved  so  fast  to  the  place  that  notwithstanding  all  that 

E 


50  HISTORY  OF   BOXLEY. 

ever  lie  (and  tlie  Monkes  also,  which  at  the  length  were 
contented  for  pities  sake  to  help  him)  coiilde  doe,  it  would 
not  be  moved  one  inche  from  it,  so  that  in  the  ende,  partly 
of  weariness  in  wrestling,  and  partly  by  persuasion  of  the 
Monkes,  which  were  in  love  with  the  Picture,  and  made 
him  beleeve  is  was  by  God  himselfe  destinate  to  their 
house,  the  carpenter  was  contented  for  a  pieece  of  money 
to  go  his  way  and  leave  the  Hoode  behinde  him.  Thus 
you  see  the  generation  of  this  the  gr^at  GrOD  of  Boxley." 

Of  the  time  or  circumstances  under  which  the  companion 
image  of  St.  Rumwald  was  introduced  into  the  Abbey  even 
Lambarde  tells  nothing,  beyond  the  tradition  respecting 
this  "  wonderful  saint ; "  this  is  briefly  told  :  a  Pagan 
King  of  Northumbria  named  Alfred,  early  in  the  seventh 
century,  had  married  Cyneburga,  the  daughter  of  Penda, 
the  Christian  King  of  Mercia,  who  had  converted  her 
husband,  and  bore  him  a  son  whose  birth  was  attended 
by  a  strange  miracle.  As  soon  as  he  was  born  (says 
Lambarde)  "  he  repeatedly  cried  with  a  lowde  voice, 
'  Ghristianus  sum — Ghristianus  sum.'  I  am  a  Christian — I 
am  a  Christian.  And  not  ceassing  thus,  made  forthwith 
plaine  profession  of  his  faith,  desired  to  be  baptized,  chose 
his  Godfathers,  named  himselfe  Eumwald,  and  with  his 
finger  directed  the  standers  by  to  fetch  him  a  great  hollow 
stone  that  hee  would  have  to  be  used  for  the  Fonte. 

"  Hereupon  sundry  of  the  King's  servants  assaied  to 
have  brought  the  stone,  but  it  was  so  far  above  all  their 
strengthe  that  they  could  not  once  move  it.  When  the 
Childe  perceaved  that,  he  commaunded  the  two  Priestes 
(his  appointed  Godfathers)  to  goe  and  bring  it,  which  they 
did  forthwith  most  easily.  This  done,  he  was  baptized, 
and  within  three  dales  after  (having  in   the    meanewhile 


THE  ABBEY.  51 

discoursed  cunningly  on  sundry  matters  of  religion,  and 
explained  his  wishes  regarding  the  disposal  of  his  body) 
his  spirit  departed,  and  was,  by  the  handes  of  Aungels, 
conveied  into  heaven."  ^ 

Thus  far  Lambarde  tells  the  tale  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Eoode  of  Grace,  and  of  the  origin  of  the  "  pretty  boy 
Sainte"  Rumwald.  Now  of  the  uses  to  which  these  two 
images  were  put;  "howe  lewdly  these  Monkes,  to  their 
owne  enriching  and  the  spoil  of  God's  people,'  abused  this 
wooden  God,"  he  goes  on  to  explain  "  on  the  authority 
of  a  good  sort  yet  on  live  (alive)  that  saw  the  fraud 
openly  detected  at  Paules  Crosse."  " 

"  If  you  minded  to  have  benefit  of  the  Roode  of  Grace, 
you  ought  first  to  bee  shriven  of  one  of  the  Monkes  ;  then 
by  lifting  at  this  other  image  (which  was  of  the  common 
sort  called  St.  Grumbald)  you  shoulde  make  proof  e 
whether  you  were  in  cleane  life  or  no,  and  if  you  so  found 
yourselfe  then  was  your  way  prepared,  and  your  oifering 
acceptable  before  the  Roode ;  if  not,  then  it  behoved  you 
to  be  confessed  anew,  for  it  was  to  be  thought  that  you 
had  concealed  somewhat  from  your  ghostly  dad,  and 
therefore  not  worthie  to  be  admitted  Ad  Sacra  EJeusina. 

"  Now  that  you  may  knowe  how  this  examination  was  to 
be  made,  you  must  understande  that  this  Saint  Rumwald 
was  of  stone,  of  itselfe  short,  and  not  seeming  to  be 
heavie ;  but  forasmuch  as  it  was  wrought  out  of  a  great 
and  weightie  stone,  it  was  hardly  to  be  lifted  by  the 
handes  of  the  strongest  man.  Neverthelesse  (such  was 
the  conveighance)  by  the  helpe  of  an  engine  fixed  to  the 
backe  thereof,  it  was  easily  prised  up  by  the  foote  of  him 
that   was    the    keeper;    and   therefore    of  no    moment    at 

^  Peramhulations  of  Kent,  p.  234.  -  Ibid,  230. 


52  HISTOEY    OF   BOXLEY. 

all  in  tlie  liaiides  of  sucli  as  liad  offered  frankly ;  and 
contrariwise  by  the  meane  of  a  pinne,  running  into  a 
poste  (wliicli  that  religious  impostor,  standing  out  of  sight, 
could  put  in  and  pull  out  at  his  pleasure),  it  was  to  such  as 
offered  faintly,  so  fast  and  unmoveable,  that  no  force  of 
hande  might  once  stirre  it. 

'^But  marke  here,  I  beseech  you,  their  policie  in  picking 
plaine  men's  purses.  It  was  in  vaine,  as  they  persuaded, 
to  presume  to  the  Roode  without  shrifte,  yea  and  money 
lost  there  also  if  you  offered  before  you  were  in  cleane 
life,  and  therefore  the  matter  was  so  handled  that  without 
treble  oblation,  that  is  to  say,  first  to  the  Confessor,  then 
to  Saint  Rumwald,  and  lastly  to  the  Gracious  Roode,  the 
poore  Pilgrimes  could  not  assure  themselves  of  any  good 
gained  by  all  their  labour."  ^ 

Thus  was  the  superstition  of  the  age  being  fed  :  thus 
were  the  coffers  of  the  Abbey  filled. 

Even  the  astute  and  penurious  Henry  VII.  appears 
among  those  who  sent  offerings  to  Boxley,"  and  his  queen, 
too,  Elizabeth  of  York  in  1502.3 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  so  deep-rooted  was  the  spirit  of 
superstitious  veneration  even  in  high  places  and  among  the 
learned  of  that  day,  that  they  could  not  see  the  advancing 
shadows  of  the  approaching  cloud — the  loud  mutterings  of 
the  gathering  storm  that  was  to  burst  upon  them,  and 
sweep  away  the  whole  system  out  of  the  country. 

Even  in  the  12th  Century  the  immoralities  and  dis- 
honesties of  the  Monasteries  had  furnished  marks  for  the 
shaft    of   the    Satirist.       Nigellus,    himself    a   Monk,    and 

^  Perambulation,  p.  233. 
^  Excerpta  Historia,  p.  91. 
^  Privy  Purse  Expenses. 


THE   ABBEY.  53 

Precentor  of  Canterbury^  in  high  favour  too  with  William 
de  Longchamp^  Bishop  of  Ely,  to  whom  he  dedicated  his 
poems,  launches  out  in  no  measured  terms  against  the 
prevailing  iniquity,  ''Whether  followers  of  Bernard  or 
''Benedict  (he  says),  or  oven  the  more  lax  rule  of 
"  Augustine,  all  alike  were  thieves,  neither  their  fair 
"  words  or  white  robes  were  to  be  trusted."  ^ 

To  pass  over  two  centuries,  we  find  William  Longland, 
also  a  Monk,  attached  to  Malvern  Abbey,  denouncing  with 
no  less  severity  the  state  of  Monasteries  in  his  day. 
In  his  "Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman"  he  describes  the 
immorality  and  dishonesty  of  the  Clerics  as  compared 
with  even  the  laity  : 

"Lewed  men  (laymen), 

And  of  litel  knowyng, 

Seldom  falle  thei  so  foule 

And  so  fer  in  synne 

As  Clerkes  of  holy  Chirche." 

And  with  almost  prophetic  eye  he  forsees  the  time  when 

"  There  shall  come  a  kynge 
And  confesse  you  Religiouses, 
And  bete  you  as  the  bible  telleth, 
For  brekynge  of  youre  rule, 
And  amende  Monyals  (Nuns), 
Menkes  and  Chanons." 


1  Hare  is  a  specimen  of  the  keenness  of  his  satire  : 

"  Qui  duce  Bernardo  gradiuntnr,  vel  Benedicto, 
"  Aut  Augustino,  sub  leviore  jngo, 

"  Omnes  sunt  fares,  quocunque  charactere  sancto 
"  Signati  veniant  magnificantque  Deum  : 

"  Ne  credas  verbis,  ne  credas  vestibus  albis  : 
"  Vix  etenim  factis  est  adhibenda  fides." 

Nigclli  Speculum  Stultorum,  Rolls  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  109. 


54  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Every  day  was  witnessing  in  one  form  or  another  the 
spreading  feeling  of  discontent  and  abhorrence  of  the 
Eomish  practices  and  their  palpable  frauds.  In  1521  it 
had  reached  the  very  doors  of  Boxley  itself.  The  walls  of 
the  Abbey  were  to  bear  their  testimony  to  the  reforming 
zeal  which  was  becoming  so  prevalent.  Here  had  been 
posted  up  with  all  the  sanctity  which  it  was  possible  to 
impart  to  it  a  formal  document  emanating  from  the  Pope^ 
supported  by  the  authority  of  the  lord  cardinal  (Wolsey, 
at  that  time  Legate  a  latere),  and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the 
Archbishop — a  document  denouncing  the  "  yl  (ill)  opinions 
of  Martine  Luther."  Yet  was  this  document  torn  off  the 
Abbey  wall  by  a  priest^  (Sir)  Adam  Bradshaw/  at  the  peril 
of  his  life  ;  for  it  and  other  like  deeds  of  insubordination, 
he  was  imprisoned  at  Maidstone,  tried  as  a  heretic,  and 
consigned  to  the  flames. 

From  other  quarters,  too,  dangers  were  threatening  the 
Religious  Houses,  and  this  Abbey  among  them,  in  spite  of 
the  great  accession  of  wealth  from  the  offerings  made  to 
the  "Rood  of  Grace /'  for  Henry  VIII.  had  laid  heavy 
burdens  upon  the  Monasteries,  of  which  Boxley  Abbey 
had  to  bear  its  share.  Again,  in  1522,  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  his  mad  invasion  of  France,  he  levied  a 
subsidy  on  the  nation,  on  the  laity  generally  one  tenth, 
and  on  the  clergy  one  fourth  of  their  incomes,  while 
Boxley  Abbey  was  also  called  on  to  produce  £50  under  the 
plausible  term  of  a  Loan. 

This  subsidy  and  other  dues  had  apparently  fallen 
heavily  into  arrears,  and  in  1524  Archbishop  Warham 
received   instructions    to   institute    an    inquiry    into    the 

1  Stafx  P(xpcrs  of  Henry  VIII.  ( Foreign  and  Domestic),  Brewer,  vol.  iii., 
part  i.,  p.  541  ;  vol.  iv.,  p.  299. 


THE  ABBEY.  55 

financial  condition  of  tlie  Abbey.  He  reports  tbe  result 
to  Wolsey^  as  Legate  a  latere,  and  says  tliat  tlie  Abbot 
"  offers  the  security  of  his  house  for  the  payment  of  the 
money  due  to  the  king ;"  meanwhile^  he  declares  he 
"  would  not  have  interfered,  as  the  place  is  exempt,  had 
he  not  been  forced  by  the  Act  of  Convocation  authorizing 
him  and  the  Bishop  of  London^  to  proceed  against  such  as 
pay  not  their  collect.^'  He  pleads,  too,  for  both  Abbey 
and  Abbot.  "As  the  place  is  much  sought  for  from  all 
parts  of  the  realm  visiting  the  '  Roode  of  Glrace,'  he 
wovtld  be  sorry  to  put  it  under  an  interdict."  The  Abbot 
also,  he  urges,  "  is  inclined  to  live  precisely,  and  bring  the 
place  out  of  debt,  or  else  it  were  a  pity  that  he  should  live 
much  longer  there  to  the  hurt  of  so  holy  a  place,  where  so 
many  miracles  be  showed."  ^ 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  knowledge  of  this  state  of 
things  in  the  Abbey  exchequer  may  have  emboldened  the 
over-zealous  Bradshaw  to  defy  the  authorities  by  his 
daring  act,  in  the  hope,  perhaps,  of  expediting  an 
exposure ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  consciousness 
of  the  real  condition  of  the  Abbey  may  have  maddened  the 
powers  that  were  to  persecute  him  to  the  bitter  end. 

To  Bradshaw  the  consequences  were  fatal.  To  Warham 
— so  learned  and  devout,  yet  so  plastic  in  the  hands  of  men 
of  stronger  will,  and  so  deeply  imbued  with  the  credulity 
of  the  age  as  to  be  induced  to  avow  a  belief  in  the  claims 
to  inspiration  of  that  impostor,  Elizabeth  Barton,  of 
Aldington,  commonly  known  as  "  the  Holy  Maid  of  Kent" 
— to  him  the  eventual  exposure  would  indeed  have  been 

1  Cuthbert  Tunstall. 

"  Letters  and  Papers  {Foreign  and  Domestic)  of  Menry  VIII.,  (Brewer,) 
vol,  iv.,  part  i.,  p.  299  (Rolls  series). 


56  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

humiliating'  liad  lie  lived  to  witness  it,  and  to  see  the  fate 
of  the  Abbey  for  which  he  had  pleaded  so  earnestly,  and 
the  dissolution  of  all  the  Monasteries  in  England.  This,  at 
least,  he  was  spared  by  his  death  in  1533. 

Before  describing  the  last  days  of  Boxley  Abbey  and  the 
fate  of  "  the  Eood  of  Grace,"  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to 
trace  briefly  the  stages  through  which  this  crusade  against 
religious  houses  passed.  Their  endowments,  like  those  of 
Churches,  were  composed  of  grants  of  lands  or  tithes  made 
by  individuals,  whether  kings,  or  nobles,  or  wealthy 
gentry,  for  the  purposes  of  religion.  Sometimes  the  grant 
would  be  made  of  land  in  England  to  a  Monastery  abroad, 
chiefly  in  Normandy,  in  which  case  the  parent  house,  if  it 
may  be  so  called,  would  plant  a  daughter  Priory  on  the 
manor  thus  given,  and  supply  it  with  a  body  of  their  own 
monks.  This  would  be  called  a  cell  {"  cella")  of  the 
Monastery  to  which  it  belonged. 

So  frequently  did  this  occur,  that  at  one  time  there  were 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  cells,  or  "  Alien 
Priories,"  in  England  ;  and  their  Priors,  like  the  mitred 
Abbots  of  the  large  Monasteries,  would  claim  immunity 
from  all  control  of  English  authorities,  temporal  and 
spiritual  alike ;  and  were  therefore  called  "  Exempt." 

Now,  in  the  reigns  of  the  first  three  Edwards  and  that 
of  Richard  IL,  the  king,  when  engaged  in  a  war  with 
France,  would  seize  the  revenues  of  these  alien  Priories 
towards  covering  his  war  expenses,  instead  of  allowing 
them  to  go,  as  they  otherwise  would,  to  help  the  French 
king.  Edward  I.  did  so  in  1285,  Edward  II.  in  1322, 
Edward  III.  in  1337,  and  Richard  II.  in  1380  ;  but  in  each 
case    the  revenues  were    restored    when   peace    was    pro- 


THE   ABBEY.  57 

claimed.  Henry  Y.,  liowever,  dealt  far  more  summarily 
with  tliem^  appropriating  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
ten  of  them  to  his  own  use,  and  making  no  restitution. 

But  the  historic  onslaught  on  the  English  Monasteries 
was  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  then,  be  it  remembered, 
under  Papal  sanction.  In  1524,  while  as  yet  there  were 
no  signs  of  the  coming  rupture  with  Rome,  Cardinal 
Wolsey  had  obtained  from  Clement  VII.  a  Bull  for  the 
dissolution  of  certain  Monasteries,  and  the  transfer  of  their 
endowments  for  the  foundation  of  his  two  Colleges  at 
Oxford  and  Ipswich;  and  four  years  after  a  further  number 
were  similarly  dealt  with  for  the  creation  of  six  additional 
Bishoprics.  Thus  was  the  principle  of  appropriating 
Monastic  property  for  other  purposes  sanctioned,  and  it 
supplied  the  King  with  a  precedent  for  carrying  still 
further,  and  for  less  laudable  and  excusable  objects,  his 
system  of  Monastic  spoliation.  But  another  motive  seems 
to  have  underlain  even  that  of  greed  in  the  King's  mind ; 
in  every  Monastery  he  detected  an  outpost  of  the  Pope's 
spiritual  army  for  the  recovery  of  England.^ 

In  the  year  1536,  Wolsey  no  longer  controlling  the 
King  and  Parliament,  and  the  facile  Cranmer  having 
become  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  an  Act  was  passed 
sweeping  away  all  lesser  Monasteries,  with  incomes  under 
£200  a  year,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  useless,  and 
moreover,  harbours  of  vice.  Thus  fell  376  houses,  with 
revenues  estimated  at  about  £32,000  a  year,  and  above 
£100,000  worth  of  plate  and  other  valuables. 

This  was  but  the  beginning.  In  the  quaint  language  of 
the  far-seeing  ones  of  that  day,  "  as  yet  the  shrubs  and 
underwoods  were  but  touched,  but  the  end  would  soon  be 

^  Stowe's  Annals,  i.,  89.     Dugdale's  JVarwickshirc. 


58  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

tlie  fall  of  the  lofty  oaks."^  JSTor  was  that  end  long  in 
coming.  A  few  months  sufficed  to  bring  it.  The  King 
and  his  courtiers,  having  tasted  the  sweets  of  the  con- 
j&scated  lands,  greedily  demanded  more.  Before  the  year 
1537  had  closed,  the  order  had  gone  forth  which  doomed 
every  Monastery  and  Nunnery  in  the  kingdom  to  appro- 
priation ;  and  to  give  a  specious  air  of  legality  to  the 
proceedings,  the  "  Court  of  Augmentations"  was  formed 
to  receive  and  take  charge  of  the  proceeds  as  the  King^s 
revenues.^ 

In  the  general  downfall,  Boxley  Abbey  was  doomed, 
and,  as  was  afterwards  proved,  deservedly  so. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  jugglery  of  "  the  Eood  of 
Grrace"  sealed  its  fate.  But  this  is  not  strictly  correct. 
The  Abbey  was  involved  in  the  general  dissolution  because 
it  was  an  Abbey.  And  it  was  not  until  the  commissioners 
had  arrived  here  and  taken  possession  that  the  '^  pious 
fraud"  was  fully  exposed,  even  though  the  pretended 
miracles  may  have  long  before  been  the  subject  of  doubt, 
and  occasionally  of  ridicule.  An  examination  of  the 
dates,  as  well  as  the  statement  of  Jeffery  Chambers  him- 

^  Godwin's  Annals  of  Henry  VIII.,  p.  S4. 

"  A  letter  from  Thomas  (Lord)  Wriothesley,  written  at  the  time  the 
Dissolution  of  the  Monasteries  was  impending,  is  not  without  interest  hei'e, 
as  containing  an  allusion  to  Boxley.  It  is  addressed  by  him  to  the  King 
from  Brussels  :  "On  Saterday  night  supped  with  us  the  Marques  of  Barrowe, 
(Anthony,  Margrave  of  Berghen,  of  Zoom),  who  semeth  wel  affected  towardes 
your  Highness,  who  also  declared  unto  us  what  was  thought  in  those  parts  of 
many,  that  all  religion  was  extinct  in  Englande  ;  and  when  we  came  to  the 
woorde  of  religion  he  expounded  it,  that  it  was  reaported  that  with  us  we 
had  no  masse,  that  Sainctes  were  burned,  and  all  that  was  taken  for  holye 
clerely  subverted.  We  declared  in  such  wise  the  religion  of  your  Majestie, 
the  abuses  of  Canterbury,  Boxley,  and  other  places  ;  that  he  semed  moche  to 
rejoyse  of  th'  one, '  and  to  detest  th'  other.  Dated  from  Bruxelles  the  20th 
November,— Thomas  Wriothesley."— State  Papers,  Henry  VIII.  (Rolls 
Series),  vol.  v.,  p.  95. 


THE   ABBEY.  59 

self,  tlie  Commissioner,  will  show  tliat  whatever  there 
might  previously  have  been  of  rumour  and  suspicion,  the 
real  detection  of  the  imposture  followed,  and  did  not 
itself  cause,  the  surrender. 

In  November,  1537,  Crumweli  had  noted  down  in  an 
autograph  volume  of  "  Remembrances,"  still  pi-eserved 
among-  the  Cottonian  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum, 
"  Must  send  for  the  Abbots  of  Boxley  and  Robertsbridge 
with  speed." ^  Clearly  he  acted  promptly  on  his  resolve. 
The  Abbot  was  evidently  sent  for  at  once.  Feeling  he 
had  fallen  on  evil  days,  and  that  his  Abbey  was  doomed, 
but  seeing  that  it  had  fared  better  with  those  who  had 
surrendered  with  a  good  grace,  and  been  pensioned,  than 
with  those  who  had  resisted  and  been  executed,  he  quickly 
entered  into  nogociations  for  surrender  and  pensions  for 
himself  and  his  brother  Monks :  for  on  the  3rd  of  the 
following  January  the  liberal  pension  of  £50  was  assigned 
to  him,  and  smaller  ones  to  the  Monks. 

On  the  29th  of  that  month  (January,  1537-8)  the  Com- 
missioners arrived  to  receive  the  formal  surrender  and  to 
take  possession  of  the  Abbey.  Then  it  was  the  Abbot 
subscribed  to  the  Supremacy,  and  then — and  ostensibly 
not  till  then — the  real  character  of  the  "Rood  of  Grace" 
was  discovered. 

Is  there  not  a  veil  of  irony  thrown  by  Chambers  over 
the  statement  he  makes  to  Crumweli  that  the  Abbot  and 
some  of  the  old  Monks  of  whom  he  asked  an  explanation 
pleaded  utter  ignorance  of  the  existence  of  the  mechanical 
trickery  he  had  brought  to  light  ? 

It  will  be  interesting  to  follow  the  wanderings  of  this 

1  Cott.  MSS. ,  Titus  B.  i. ,  f.  437.  Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry  VIII 
Rolls  Series),  vol.  xii.,  part  ii.,  p.  409. 


60  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

'^  ungracious  Eood/'  as  Lambarde  calls  it.  Its  detection  is 
thus  described  by  Jeffery  Chambers  :  who  reports  what 
he  had  himself  seem.  He  writes  thus  to  Crumwell  early 
in  February,  1538  : 

"  Upon  the  defacing  of  the  late  Monastery  of  Boxley 
and  plucking  down  of  the  images  of  the  same,  I  found 
in  the  Image  of  the  Roode  of  Grace,  which  heretofore 
hath  been  had  in  great  veneration  of  people,  certain 
engines  and  old  wire  with  old  rotten  stykes  (sticks)  in 
the  back  of  the  same,  that  did  cause  the  eyes  of  the  same 
to  move  and  stare  (stir)  in  the  head  thereof  like  unto  a 
living  thing,  and  also  the  nether  lip  likewise  to  move, 
as  though  it  would  speak,  which  so  found  wires  were 
not  a  little  strange  to  me  and  others  that  were  present 
at  the  plucking  down  of  the  same. 

"  Whereupon  the  Abbot,  hearing  this,  did  thither  resort, 
whom,  to  my  little  wit  (understanding)  and  cunning  (skill), 
with  others  of  the  old  Monks,  I  did  examine  of  their 
knowledge  of  the  premises,  who  do  declare  themselves 
to  be  ignorant  of  the  same.  So  remitting  the  further 
(examination)  unto  your  good  lordship,  when  they  shall 
repair  unto  London.  Nevertheless,  the  said  Abbot  is  sore 
sick  that  as  yet  he  is  not  able  to  come. 

"  Further,  when  I  had  seen  this  strange  subject,  and 
considering  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  of  Kent 
had  in  time  past  a  devotion  to  the  same,  and  use  to  (make) 
continual  pilgrimage  thither,  by  the  advice  of  others  that 
were  here  with  me,  did  convey  the  said  image  unto 
Mayston  (Maidstone)  this  present  Thursday,  then  being 
the  market-day,  did  show  it  openly  unto  all  the  people 
there  being  present  to  see  the  false,  craft}',  and  subtle 
handlincr  thereof  to  the  dishonour  of  God  and  the  delusion 


THE   ABBEY.  61 

of  the  said  people,  who,  I  dare  say,  in  case  the  said 
Monastery  were  to  be  defaced  again  (the  King^s  grace  not 
offended),  they  would  either  pluck  it  down  to  the  ground, 
or  else  burn  it,  for  they  have  the  said  matter  in  wondi^ous 
detestation  and  hatred,  as  at  my  repair  unto  your  good 
lordship,  and  bringing  the  same  image  with  me,  where- 
upon I  do  somewhat  tarry,  and  for  the  further  defacing  of 

the  said  late  Monastery  I  shall  declare  unto  you 

At  Maydeston  the  vii.  day  of  Feb. 

"  Your  most  bounden, 

"■Jeffray  Chambers."^ 

A  letter  of  a  month^s  later  date,  from  another  of  Crum- 
welFs  Commissioners,  Robert  Southwell,"  describes  the 
state  of  the  Abbey  and  the  assignment  of  the  pensions  : 

"  Sir, — Theis  pore  men  have  not  spared  to  confesse  the 
treweth  ....  whereby  in  my  pore  mynde  they  deserve 
the  more  favour,  and  I  dare  saie  in  their  hartes  thinke 
them  selffes  rather  to  have  meryted  perdon  by  their 
ignorance  than  prayse  or  lawde  for  their  forme  of  lyvinge. 
Whether  ther  was  cawse  why  that  Boxley  shulde  recog- 
nyce  as  moche  or  more,  it  may  please  you  to  judge,  whom 
it  also  pleased  to  shewe  me  the  Idolle  that  stode  there,  in 
myne  opynyon  a  very  monstruows  sight.  Here  was  also 
of  late  in  this  monastery  a  pece  of  Saint  Andrew^s  fynger, 
covered  with  an  unce  of  sylver  or  there  aboughte,  a  very 
precyows  juell  in  the  estimation  of  many,  and  now  leyde  to 
pledge  by  the  monastery  to  one  of  the  towne  XL.  li.,  whiche 
^Ye  intende  nat  to  redeme   of    the    pryce,   exeept   we    be 

^  Record  Office,  Crumwdl  CoiTCspondeJice,  vol.  v.,  f.  210,  also  printed  in 
Ellis's  Original  Letters,  3rd  series,  iii.,  168. 

-  Afterwards  Master  of  the  Rolls  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Edward  VI. 


62  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

commaunded  so  to  do/^  Tlien  speaking  of  the  falling  off 
of  the  income  from  700  to  400  marcs,  lie  continues,  "  There 
have  growne  no  decay  by  this  priour  that  we  can  learn, 
but  surely  his  predecessours  plesured  moche  in  odoryferous 
savours,  as  it  should  seeme  by  their  converting  the  rentes 
of    their    monastery,    that    were    wonte    to    be    paide    in 

coyne  and  grayne,  into  gelofer  flowers  and  roses 

Sir,  we  have  practysed  with  the  pore  men  for  their 
pencions  as  easely  to  the  Kynges  charges  and  as  moche  to 
his  graces  honour  as  we  could  devyse   ...  3  of  Merche. 

"  Robert  Southwell."  ^ 

Another  account  from  a  Maidstone  man,  who  signs 
himself  ''  Johannes  Hokerus,  Maidestonieusis,"  and  whom 
Burnet  erroneously  calls  a  "  Minister  of  Maidstone,"  will 
carry  the  Rood  a  step  further.     It  runs  thus  : 

"  There  was  lately  discovered  a  wooden  god  of  Kentish 
folk,  a  hanging  Christ,  who  might  have  vied  with  Proteus 
himself,  for  he  most  cunningly  knew  how  to  nod  with  his 
head,  to  scowl  with  his  eyes,  to  wag  his  beard,  to  bend  his 
body,  to  reject  or  receive  the  prayers  of  pilgrims.  This 
(image),  when  the  Monks  lost  their  craft,  was  found  in 
their  church  begirded  with  many  a  votice  offering  {plurimo 
anathemate),  enriched  with  gifts  of   linen  and  wax,  from 

town     and     country,     and     from     foreign     parts 

Throughout  his  hollowed  body  were  hidden  pipes,  in  which 
the  master  of  the  mysteries  had  introduced  through  little 
apertures  a  flexible  wire,  the  passages  being  nevertheless 
concealed  by  thin  plates.  By  such  contrivances  he  had 
demented  the  people  of  Kent — aye,  the  whole  of  England 

^  Wright's  Letters  on  the  Suppression  of  the  Mojiasterics  (Camden  Society), 
p.   172  ;  Cott.  MSS.,  Cleop.,  E.  IV.,  f.  218. 


THE   ABBEY.  63 

— for  ages,  with  niucli  gain.     Being  laid  open,  lae  afforded 

a    sportive     sight,    first    to    all    my    Maidstonians 

From  thence  he  was  taken  to  London.  He  paid  a  visit  to 
the  Royal  Court.  This  new  guest  salutes  the  King  himself 
after  a  novel  fashion.  .  .  .  (Here  follows  a  highly 
graphic  and  palpably  sensational  detail.)  The  matter  was 
referred  to  the  Council.     After  a  few  days  a  sermon  was 

preached    by    the    Bishop    of    Rochester    Hilsey) 

Then,  Avhen  the  preacher  began  to  wax  warm,  and  the 
Word  of  God  to  work  secretly  in  the  hearts  of  the  hearers, 
the  wooden  trunk  was  hurled  among  the  most  crowded  of 
the  audience.  And  now  was  heard  a  tremendous  clamour. 
He  is  snatched,  torn,  broken  in  pieces,  bit  by  bit,  split  up 
into  a  thousand  fragments,  and  at  last  thrown  into  the  fire  : 
and  thus  was  an  end  of  him."^ 

Such  was  Hoker's  tale ;  and  he  claims  to  have  been  an 
eye-witness  of  what  took  place  in  his  own  town  of  Maid- 
stone. 

The  volume  of  Zurich  Letters,  published  by  the 
Parker  Society,  contains  several  other  accounts,  one  from  a 
William  Peterson,  another  from  one  John  Finch,  a  third 
from  Nicholas  Partridge  f  but  all  these  are  at  second- 
hand, for  these  men  only  retail  to  their  friends  accounts 
which  came  to  them  on  the  Continent  through  a  certain 
German  merchant,  and  each  would  seem  to  vie  with  the 
others  in  the  strength  and  extravagant  bitterness  of  what 
may  be  admitted  to  be  exaggerations.  Yet,  what  more 
natural  than  that  the  very  fact  and  circumstances  of  their 

1  Burnet  gives  this  letter  in  its  original  Latin,  and  adds  what  he  calls  a 
translation,  really  a  loose  paraphrase,  of  it. — History  of  the  Reformation 
(Collection  of  Records),  Part  vi.,  book  iii.,  p.  180.     Appendix  G. 

'•^  Zinich  Letters  (Parker  Society,  1847),  pp.  604,  606,  609. 


64  HISTOEY  OF  BOXLEY. 

exile,  as  they  believed  for  tlie  truth's  sake,  should  stimulate 
their  powers  of  imagination,  and  move  them  to  pour  an 
additional  infusion  of  gall  into  their  ink  ? 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  ask  here  what  view  the 
E-omanist  of  to-day  takes  of  the  whole  proceedings. 

He  will  urge,  considering  the  source  from  whence  they 
come,  that  these  are  only  "  Protestant  inventions,  or  at 
best,  gross  exaggerations  " — lies  he  may  courteously  call 
them.  But  how  can  he  reconcile  this  with  the  language 
of  Erasmus,^ — no  bigotted  "  Protestant  "  he,  but  one  who 
lived  and  died  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  Home, 
— when  he  charges  the  Monks  with  "  tyrannizing  over 
the  consciences  of  the  deluded  laity  with  fopperies, 
juggleries,  and  impostures  ? "  -  or  with  the  Articles  of 
Enquiry  for  the  Monastery  of  Walsingham,  when  one  is 
to  the  following  effect,  "  What  is  the  greatest  miracle 
and  moste  undoubted  whiche  is  said  to  have  bene 
doon  by  our  Ladye  here,  or  by  any  of  the  said  reliques  ?" 
And  again,  "Whether  our  Ladye  hathe  doon  so  many 
miracles  nowe  of  late  as  it  was  said  she  did  when  there 
was  more  offering  made  unto  her  ?  " 

Now  be  it  admitted  that  Foxe,  and  Hoker,  and  Peterson, 
and  Finch,  Avere  extreme  and  bitter  anti-Romanists, 
revelling,  as  it  would  seem,  and  not  unnaturally,  in  the 
freshness  of  their  freedom  from  Romish  superstition, 
and  therefore  not  unlikely  to  paint  in  over-glaring 
colours  the  exposure  of  deceptions  and  illusions  of  which 
they  may  themselves  for  years  have  been  among  the 
victims. 

1  Erasmus'  Morice  Encomium,  Bp.  Kennett's  Translation,  p.  123. 
-  Harl.  MSS.,  791,  p.  27. 


THE   ABBEY.  65 

But  wliat  has  tlie  Romanist  himself  to  say  in 
defence  or  justification  of  these  practices  ?  The  latest 
champion  of  the  cause  is  the  author  of  a  Avork  entitled 
"  Blunders  and  Forgeries/  in  a  chapter  which  appeai'ed 
originally  in  the  Dublin  Review,  under  the  heading  "  The 
Rood  of  Grrace,  or  How  a  Lie  Grows/^  He  does  not 
attempt  to  deny  the  existence  of  such  a  figure,  or  that  it 
had  such  a  remarkable  mechanism.  Nay,  he  admits  that 
such  mechanical  figures  were  not  uncommon,  illustrating 
his  argument  by  the  jointed  figures  of  the  Saviour,  which 
were  so  constructed  to  admit  of  their  being  wrapped  in  a 
shroud  on  Good  Friday,  and  laid  in  a  Sepulchre,  and  then 
robed  anew  on  Easter  Morning.  But  does  he  not  forget 
the  difference  between  the  devotional  effect  which  such  a 
representation,  like  that  of  a  beautiful  stained  glass 
window,  might  have  on  a  susceptible  emotional  mind, 
and  the  claim  which  is  put  forward  on  behalf  of  this 
miracle-working  ^' Rood  of  Grace,"  or  its  more  northern 
rival,  "  St.  Mary  of  Walsingham.""  He  candidly  avows  his 
opinion,  which  he  says  is  maintained  by  "  Catholics, 
or  at  least  by  himself,"  that  "  the  miracles  wrought,  or 
supposed  to  have  been  wrought,  or  graces  obtained, 
before  this  crucifix  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
movements"  so  suggestively  made.  Surely  such  a  denial, 
or  minimizing,  of  the  claims  of  relics  to  thaumatergic 
power  would  be  a  conceding  the  soundness  of  one  of  the 
main  positions  taken  by  the  English  Reformers,  and  a 
virtual  stultifying  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  effective 
pretentions  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

The  author  of  "  Blunders  and  Forgeries,"  after  quibbles 

1  ByT.  E.  Bridgett,  F.S.S.R. 

2  See  Harleian  MSS.,  791,  p.  27.  Pilgrimage  of  Erasmus  (J.  G.  NichoUs), 
App.,  p.  204. 

F 


66  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

and  querks  and  cavils  at  tlie  language  of  Lambarde,  wlio, 
as  we  have  seen,  made  Ms  statement  on  the  authority  of 
printed  accounts  of  the  Monks  themselves — of  Burnet,  who 
always  gives  his  authority — of  Hume,  whose  scepticism 
would  keep  him  clear  of  hasty  judgment — of  Froude,  and 
Hook, — seems  as  if  he  were  acting  on  the  instructions  said 
to  have  been  once  given  on  a  Barrister's  brief,  ''No 
defence.  Abuse  the  Prosecutor's  witnesses;"  for  he 
summons  them  one  by  one  before  him,  placing  them — 
not  in  the  witness-box  for  cross-examination — but  in  the 
pillory,  to  be  pelted  with  the  choicest  selection  of  epithets 
he  can  command — there  are  "  the  arch-knave  Thomas 
Crumwell,"  the  "  perjured  Archbishop  Cranmer,"  the 
"time-serving  Hilsey,"  the  ''debauched  and  bloodthirsty 
Henry,"  &c.  Does  he  need  to  be  reminded  that  abuse 
is  not  argument,  that  strength  of  language  and  soundness 
of  reasoning  often  go  in  inverse  ratio  the  one  to  the 
other  ? 

Far  more  seemly  is  the  language  of  the  charitable  and 
philosophic  Hook,  who  recognises  that  under  the  then 
state  of  society  "  the  service  rendered  to  the  Christian 
cause  by  the  Monastic  institutions  was  great,"  but  in 
speaking  of  their  deterioration  and  downfall,  he  says : 
"  We  live  in  an  age  when  the  spirit-wrapper  finds  believers 
among  those  who  think  it  a  mark  of  superior  intelligence 
to  discredit  Revelation.  It  is  not,  therefore,  for  us  to 
attempt  to  distinguish  between  the  wilful  deceivers,  the 
self-deceived,  and  the  dupes  of  a  bygone  age.  We  can 
only  say  that  when  there  was  a  demand  for  the  miraculous, 
the  demand  was  met.  So  long  as  it  was  met,  those  who 
were  at  the  head  of  aifairs  did  not  trouble  themselves  to 
investigate  the  means  by  which  the  end  was  obtained,     A 


THE   ABBEY.  67 

wonder-working    slirine    was    a    mine    of    wealth 

If  money  was  required  to  rebuild  or  restore  a  sacred 
edifice,  a  relic  was  purchased,  or  the  canonization  of  a 
local  hero  was  procured.  His  slirine  was  visited  by- 
enthusiasts,  who  felt,  or  declared,  that  their  bodily  infir- 
mities were  relieved  ;  and  when  this  kind  of  enthusiasm 
died  away,  or  was  confined  to  a  few  localities,  the  iniquitous 
system  of  Indulgences  was  introduced.  By  offering  alms 
and  prayers  at  a  shrine  richly  endowed  with  Indulgences 
the  misled  people  expected  a  relaxation  from  the  pains  of 
purgatory  for  themselves,  or  for  their  friends.  When 
with  the  revival  of  learning  a  spirit  of  free  enquiry  was 
awakened  in  Europe,  from  these  superstitions  the  mind 
revolted."  ^ 

To  sum  up  all,  can  it  be  denied,  or  gainsaid,  that  here 
a  once  goodly  shrine  was  prostituted  to  its  own  shame, 
into  a  scene  of  flagrant  imposture, — call  it  "pious  fraud" 
if  you  will ! — and  into  a  source  of  unholy  gain  ? 

1  Lives  of  the  Archhisho]os,  vol.  ii.,  p.  16,  &c. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE      ABBOTS. 

THE  Abbey  of  Boxley,  as  has  been  shown  in  the 
preceding-  Chapter/  was  among  the  earliest  of  the 
religious  houses  of  the  Cistercian  Order  established  in 
England,  having  been  founded  in  1146.  While  the 
Benedictine  Abbey  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  was 
of  a  much  earlier  date, — so  early  indeed  that  no  historic 
record  exists  of  its  original  foundation,  unless  we  associate 
it  with  Augustine  himself, — and  naturally,  from  its  con- 
nection with  the  Primacy,  held  a  more  conspicuous  place 
in  the  annals  of  the  English  Church  :  yet  that  of  Boxley 
was  not  without  its  history  ;  and  it  is  in  the  pages  of  the 
early  chroniclers  of  Canterbury,  Gervase  and  Eadmer, 
that  that  history  may  be  first  traced.  For  no  Abbot  of 
Boxley  could  be  recognised  as  such  until  he  had  received 
confirmation,  or,  as  it  was  termed,  ''benediction,"  at  the 
hands  of  the  Primate.  This  would  imply,  that  not  like  the 
majority  of  English  Abbeys,  which  were  "exempt"  from 
Diocesan  control,  Boxley,  by  the  tenor  of  its  foundation, 
was  under  the  recognition  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Primacy. 
Though  it  will  be  seen  that  subsequently,  for  instance, 
when  Abp.  Warham  reported  its  condition  to  Wolsey  as 

1  Paee  29. 


THE  ABBOTS.  69 

Papal  Legate/  it  had.  come  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
^"^ exempt"  Monasteries.  It  is  therefore  to  the  Actus 
roniificum  Cantuariensium,  preserved  by  Gervase  in  his 
Chronicles^  we  are  indebted  for  the  names  of  the  first  of 
these  Abbots,  and  from  this  source  we  learn  that  Arch- 
bishop Theobald,  who  held  the  Primacy  from  1139  to  1161, 
confirmed  three  Abbots,  Lambekt,  Thomas,  and.  Walter.^ 
Unfortunately  only  the  Christian  names  are  given,  without 
any  distinguishing  designation  or  title,  so  that  their  pre- 
vious or  subsequent  careers  cannot  be  traced  with  any 
certainty,  and  it  is  only  possible,  by  reference  to  dates, 
to  connect  any  of  them  with  any  of  those  events  in  which 
Abbots  of  Boxley  are  said  to  have  taken  part. 

As  the  Abbey  was  only  founded  in  1146,  and  Gervase 
gives  March  1152-3  as  the  date  of  the  confirmation  of 
Abbot  Thomas,  it  may  be  reasonably  inferred  that 
Lambert  was  the  first  to  sit  in  the  abbatial  chair,  and 
that  it  was  he  who  in  the  year  1151,  with  his  brother 
Abbot  of  Faversham,  attended  Archbishop  Theobald  when 
he,  under  papal  compulsion,  confirmed  Sylvester  as  Abbot 
of  St.  Augustine's  Monastery.     The  story  runs  thus  : 

On  the  vacancy  occurring,  the  monks  chose  Sylvester, 
one  of  their  own  body ;  but  the  Archbishop  having 
received  very  vinfavourable  reports  of  his  life,  refused  to 

1  See  page  55. 

-  Gervase  gives  the  following  from  the  Actus  Pontificum,  "  c?e  Theobaldo: 
Abbates  istos  benedixit  Theobaldus,  Lambertum  scilicet  de  Boxeleia- 
Thomara  de  Boxeleia,  Walterum  de  Boxeleia.  '^  De  Ricardo,  3o\\3.i\neva. 
benedixit  Abbatem  de  Boxeleia."  .  .  .  .  '^  De  Baldivino,  Dionysium 
quoque  benedixit  Abbatem  de  Boxeleia."  In  his  Chronicon  he  gives  the  date 
of  the  confirmation  of  Thomas  thus:  "  a.d.  1152  Hoc  anno  Theobaldus 
Cantuariensis,  totius  Anglise  Primas  et  Apostolicse  sedis  Legatus,  benedixit 
Thomam  Abbatem  de  Boxeleia  ad  altare  Christi  Cantuarise,  vi  Non.  Martii." 
Gervase,  Rolls  Serins  (Stubbs),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  385,  398,  405. 


70  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

admit  him^  until,  on  Ins  appealing  to  Rome,  a  mandate 
came  from  Pope  Eugenius  III."  to  which  Theobald  was 
compelled  to  bow.  The  ceremonial  of  the  confirmation 
could  not  fail  to  be  an  imposing  one.  St.  Augustine^s 
was  clearly  facile  'princepa  among  the  English  Abbeys  of 
that  day.  In  addition  to  the  goodly  retinue  which 
befitted  his  own  dignity,  and  that  of  the  Abbot  elect, 
the  function  required  the  presence  of  two  other  Abbots 
as  attendants  on  the  Primate,  for  which  honour  Theobald 
seems  to  have  selected  those  of  Boxley  and  Faversham. 

Of  Lambert's  successor,  Thomas,  there  is  apparently 
nothing  on  record. 

Walter,  whom  Gervase  places  third  on  the  list,  would 
seem  to  have  had  a  noteworthy  career ;  but  before  enter- 
ing upon  it,  notice  should  be  taken  of  the  list  which 
Somner  gives,'^  as  with  him  three  more  intervene  between 
Thomas  and  Walter.  He  gives  the  order  thus  :  Lambert, 
Thomas,  John,  William,  Dionysius,  and  then  Walter.  He 
does  not  state  from  what  source  he  obtained  the  names, 
whereas  the  list  given  by  Gervase  is  clearly  taken  from 
the  official  records  of  the  See,  and  he  expressly  says  that 
John  was  confirmed  by  Archbishop  Richard  (1174-84),  and 

1  Bisliop  Godwin  {De  Presidibus,  p.  70)  thus  describes  the  controversy: 
"Silvester  quidam,  variorum  criminum  infamia  notatus,  Monachorum  tamen 
suffragiis  ccenobii  Augiistiniani  Abbas  designatus  est.  Hunc  ille,  quod 
tanto  munere  indignum  judicaret,  admittere  (aut  ut  usitato  more  loquar) 
benedicere  renuit.  Sed  iste,  qualitercunque  moratus,  bene  certe  nummatus, 
Pontificem  potiiit  habere  patronum  ;  cujus  Uteris  iterum  internmque 
perscriptis,  interpellatus,  vel  potius  dixerim  minis  et  mandatis  coactus, 
Archiepiscopus  Silvestrum  tandem  (neque  enim  aliter  poterat)  voti  fecit 
compotem," 

2  Or  Adrian  III.  See  Batteley's  Somner  s  Canterbury.  Part  II.  App. 
No.  xxxiv.,  p.   61. 

3  Ibid.,  Part  I.     App.  p.  51. 


THE  ABBOTS.  71 

Dionjsiiis  by  Baldwin  (1185-92).  It,  tlierefore,  seems 
quite  justifiable  to  place  Walter  as  the  direct  successor  of 
Thomas. 

In  this  case  he  was  no  insignificant  representative  of 
the  Abbey  of  Boxley,  for  he  it  must  have  been  on  whom 
devolved  the  honour  of  oflBciating  on  no  less  historical  an 
occasion  than  at  the  burial  of  Thomas  a  Becket.  He,  with 
the  Prior  of  Dover,  had  been  summoned  to  Canterbury  by 
the  Archbishop,  to  consult  with  him  as  to  the  selection  of 
one  of  the  monks  to  fill  the  vacant  post  of  Prior,^  and  was 
there  on  that  memorable  Christmastide  when  Becket  fell  a 
victim  to  the  ruthless  savagery  of  the  four  knights.  In 
the  utter  consternation  and  bewilderment  of  the  poor 
monks,  it  fell  on  him  to  perform  the  last  sad  office  of 
consigning  hurriedly  to  its  first  resting-place  in  the  crypt 
before  the  altars  of  S.  John  and  S.  Augustine,  the  blood- 
stained corpse  of  the  martyr-Primate,  an  office  which,  as 
the  shirt  of  hair  betrayed  him  to  be  a  Cistercian,  was 
most  fitting  at  the  hands  of  a  Cistercian  Abbot.- 

The  next  event  in  English  history  in  which  an  Abbot 
of  Boxley  has  a  place,  is  the  Synod  of  Westminster,^ 
convened  in  1175,  by  Henry  II.,  at  the  solicitation  of 
Archbishop  Eichard  (Becket's  successor),  commonly 
known  as  Eichard   of  Dover,  he  having  been  Prior  there, 

^  "  Affuit  illi  obsequio  Abbas  de  Boxeleia  et  Prior  de  Dovra,  vocati  prius  ab 
Archiepiscopo  quia  eorum  consilio  Priorem,  qui  in  Cantnariensi  non  erat 
ecclesia,  unum  de  Monachis  voluit  facere."  (Viia  S.  Thome,  auctore 
Willelmo  filio  Stephani,  s.  151,  quoted  by  Craigie  Robertson,  Materials  for 
the  Life  of  Becket,  (Rolls  Series),  iii,  148.  One  old  Chronicler  after  another 
describes  the  scene,  with  slight  variation  of  language.     See  Appendix  H. 

■'  Becket  had  been  admitted  to  that  Order  at  Pontigny,  during  his  exile,  in 
1164.     Craigie  Robertson's  Becket,  a  Biography,  p.  163. 

^  Oesta  Henrici  II.  &  Ricardi  I.,  Rolls  Edition,  i.,  85. 


72  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

At  this  Synod  tlie  King  himself  was  present,  and  several 
Canons  were  promulgated  bearing  on  the  celibacy,  dress, 
and  general  demeanour  of  the  clergy. 

Whether  it  was  Abbot  Walter  or  his  successor  John 
(whom  Archbishop  Richard  had  confirmed),  is  doubtful,  as 
the  date  of  Walter's  death  and  of  Abbot  John's  confirm- 
ation is  not  recorded,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  latter  was 
the  one  who,  aboRt  1180,  again  in  conjunction  with  him  of 
Faversham^  was  selected  by  Pope  Alexander  III.^  to 
arbitrate  between  Sir  Nathaniel  de  Leveland  and  the 
monks  of  St.  Bertin,  at  St.  Omer's,  concerning  the  right 
to  the  Leveland  Chapel  in  the  alien  Priory  of  Throwley,^ 
which  was  a  cell  attached  to  the  Cluniac  Abbey  of  St. 
Bertin.     The  decision  was  given  in  favour  of  the  monks. 

Abbot  John  was  followed  by  Dionysius,  who  was  con- 
firmed by  Archbishop  Baldwin  1185.  He  ajDpears  to  have 
been  at  once^  selected  by  Pope  Urban  III.  to  take  part  in 
a  commission,  with  his  brother  Abbot  of  Faversham,  under 
the  distinguished  Prelate,  Hugo  de  Grenoble,  Bishop  of 
Lincoln.*  The  circumstances  were  these.  Baldwin  had, 
within  the  first  year  of  his  attaining  to  the  Primacy, 
appropriated  to  his  own  use  the  revenues  of  the  two 
parishes  of  Eastrye  and  Monkton,  which  had  been 
expressly  assigned  "  for  the  use  of  the  poor."  The  mem- 
bers of  this   Commission   were  specially  required    to    use 

1  Chartulary  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin,  vol.  i.,  412,  quoted  in  Arch. 
Cant,  iv.,  215. 

"  The  Church  of  Throwley  had  been  granted  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Bertin  by 
William  d'Ypres,  who  had  been  the  original  founder  of  Boxley  Abbey. 

^  Archbishop  Baldwin  was  only  promoted  to  the  Primacy  early  in  the  year 
1185,  and  Pope  Urban  only  wore  the  tiara  for  a  few  months  in  that  and  the 
following  year. 

■*  He  is  also  variously  styled  Bishop  of  Avalon,  or  Ascalon. 


THE  ABBOTS.  73 

their  influence  with  the  Archbishop  to  restore  these  funds 
to  their  original  use  ;  in  which  it  seems  they  succeeded. 

But  the  most  important  controversy  in  which,  during 
the  same  Primacy,  an  Abbot  of  Boxley  was  concerned,  was 
when  Archbishop  Baklwin  and  the  Monks  of  the  Christ 
Church  Monastery  had  their  bitter  contest.  Here  comes 
an  incident  of  English  Church  history  of  no  little  import- 
ance. From  the  days  when  Lanfranc  carried  out  his  plan 
of  changing  the  relation  between  the  Primacy  and  the 
Christ-Church  Monastery,  detaching  the  one  from  the 
other,  and  dividing  the  hitherto  common  property,  at 
every  vacancy  of  the  See  a  struggle  for  the  right  of 
electing  the  successor  had  arisen  between  the  Monks,  (who 
claimed  the  right  on  the  ground  that  they  had  previously 
elected  him  as  their  Abbot),  and  the  Bishops  of  the 
Southern  Province  (whose  claim  was  based  on  the  fact  of 
his  being  their  Metropolitan).  Sometimes  this  struggle 
became  so  intense  as  to  require  the  intervention  of  the 
King,  or  the  Pope,  coming  down  as  a  Deus  'ex  machind,  and 
solving  the  difficulty  by  appointing  a  nominee  of  his  own. 
Now  Baldwin  had  originally  been  the  choice  of  the  Bishops 
in  opposition  to  the  nominee  of  the  Monks  ;  but  on  the 
entreaty  of  the  King  they  withdrew  their  claim  to  elect, 
and  accepted  the  Episcopal  choice.  Still  they  set  them- 
selves persistently  to  thwart  him  at  everj-  turn,  and 
instead  of  being,  as  the  Chapter  was  originally  destined 
to  be,  a  council  of  helpers  and  advisers,  they  set  them- 
selves to  counteract  him  in  every  branch  of  his  adminis- 
tration. To  escape  from  their  interference  Baldwin 
resolved  to  establish  a  Chapter  of  Seculars  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  Metropolitical  city,  and  thus  be  free  of 
them ;  but  his  attempt  was  frustrated  by  the  intrigues  of 


74  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

tlie  Monks,  and  neither  at  St.  Stephen's,  near  Canterbury, 
nor  at  Maidstone,  nor  even  at  Lambeth,^  could  lie  fully 
carry  Ms  point  ;  and  lie  died  with  his  object  unattained. 

Meanwhile  Richard  had  come  to  the  throne,  and  found 
the  struggle  still  going  on,  or  rather  renewed  by  Hubert 
Walter,  who  had  become  Archbishop.  A  change,  too,  had 
taken  place  in  the  Abbey  of  Boxley.  Robert^  had 
succeeded  Dionysius,  and  he  was  destined  to  occupy  a 
conspicuous  position  in  the  struggle  and  in  other  events 
which  were  passing.  Richard  selected  him,  in  conjunction 
with  the  Abbot  of  Rievaulx,  to  mediate  between  the 
contending  parties,  and  to  bring  to  an  end,  if  possible,  a 
struggle  which  had  now  been  going  on  for  ten  years,  by 
persuading  the  Convent  to  give  way  ;  but  they  defiantly 
refused  to  yield.^  Gervase  says  they  remained  "  more 
obdurate  than  adamant,  and  more  stiff  than  steel."  The 
end  was  not  to  be  yet.  They  had  sent  emissaries  to  Rome 
to  obtain  the  Pope's  favour ;  and  the  King  despatched 
thither  Abbot  Robert  and  the  Prior  of  the  daughter  house 
of  Robertsbridge,  as  delegates  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 
Archbishop. 

On  this,  as  on  other  occasions,  the  special  province  of 
the  peaceful  and  peace-loving  Cistercians  seems  to  have 
been  to  play  the  part  of  mediators,  while  another  reason 
for  their  selection  in  this  case  probably  was  that  Baldwin 

^  Here  lie  succeeded  only  so  far  as  to  establish  an  official  residence,  but  not 
a  Chapter. 

^  Robert  is  mentioned  as  being  Abbot  in  1197  {Pedes  Finium,  xi.  ;  Arch. 
Cant.,  i..  240)  ;  and  again  in  1201  {Ibid.,  Ixxv.  ;  Arch.  Cant.,  ii.,  262). 

**  "  Missi  sunt  ad  Conventum  Abbates  duo,  viz.,  de  Boxeleia  at  de  Ponte- 
Roberti,  ut  ipsi  aliquid  temptarent  efficere,  verum  Conventus,  adamante 
durior  et  ferro  fortior,  non  adquieverit  eis."     (Gervase,  Opera  Hist.,  i.,  560.) 


THE  ABBOTS.  75 

liimself  liad,  during  the  period  of  liis  Monastic  ardour, 
been  admitted  into  tliat  Order  in  tlie  Monastery  of  Ford.^ 

Again,  in  the  year  1200,  Abbot  Robert  was  called  upon 
by  the  Pope,  Innocent  III.,  to  adjudicate  on  a  question 
which  had  arisen  in  the  Northern  Province.^  The  point 
in  dispute  was  the  appointment  to  the  Archdeaconry  of 
Richmond.  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Henry  II.,  had  nominated 
Honorius,  while  King  Richard  had  selected  for  the  vacant 
post  Roger  de  St.  Edmund  ;  but  the  Archbishop  refused 
to  institute  him.  To  settle  this.  Pope  Innocent  com- 
missioned Gilbert  de  Granvill,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
with  the  Abbot  of  Boxley  and  the  Prior  of  Leeds,  to 
investigate  and  decide  their  respective  claims  ;  this  they 
did  in  favour  of  Honorius,  by  a  compromise,  and  Roger  de 
St.  Edmund  succeeded  him  two  years  after. 

One  more  connection  between  Hubert  Walter  and 
Boxley  Abbey  must  not  be  omitted.  The  Archbishop, 
enfeebled  as  he  was  by  illness  and  old  age;,  was  called  on 
to  settle  a  dispute  between  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  and 
his  Monks,  and  had  selected  Boxley  Abbey  as  the  place 
at  which  he  would  hold  his  court  ;  but  while  he  was  on 
his  way  there  from  Canterbury,  the  disease  from  which  he 
was  suffering  {anthrax,  carbuncle)  had  become  so  acute, 
he  was  obliged  to  turn  aside  to  his  Palace  at  Tenham,  and 
there  he  died,  a  few  hours  after,  in  1190.^ 

But  the  event  which  carries  with  it  the  most  historic 
interest  in  connection  with  Boxley  Abbey  has  yet  to  be 
mentioned.     When  Richard  I.,  having  made  his  truce  with 

^  Hook's  Lives  of  the  ArcJibishops,  ii.,  544. 

2  Hoveden's  Chronica  (Rolls  Series),  iv.,  184,  n. 

^  Radulplms  de  Coggleshall,  Chronica  Anglicana  (Rolls  Series),  p.  156. 


76  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Saladin^  was  hurrying  home  to  counteract  the  intrigues 
and  treachery  of  his  brother  John^  in  1193^  as  he  was 
passing  through  Austria,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  his 
bitter  enemy,  Leopold,  who  sold  him  to  his  scarcely  less 
bitter  enemy,  the  Emperor,  by  whom  he  was  thrown  into 
prison ;  but  so  secret  was  the  place  of  his  confinement  it 
could  not  be  traced,  till  the  Chief  Justiciar  of  England 
(Walter,  Archbishop  of  Coutance)  selected,  as  specially 
suited  for  so  delicate  a  purpose.  Abbot  Robert  of  Boxley 
and  Prior  John  of  Robertsbridge. 

The  active  part  thus  assigned  to  them  may  perhaps  be 
accounted  for  by  the  gratitude  the  Cistercians  were  known 
to  entertain  towards  Richard  in  consequence  of  his 
liberality  to  that  Order. ^ 

While  Romance  has  immortalised  the  mythical  adven- 
ture of  the  minstrel  Blondel,  and  his  discovery  of  the 
King's  prison,  history  has  remained  silent,  or  said  but 
very  little,  about  the  bold  enterprise  of  the  two  Cistercian 
Monks,  who  really  made  the  discovery  and  effected  the 
ransom  of  their  captive  King.^ 

^  Ricardus  Rex  Moiiacliis  Cisterciensibiis  ad  Capitulum  Generale  conveni- 
entibus  singulis  annis  C.  marcas  argenti  contulit,  &c.  Chronica  Johannis  de 
Oxend en  {Rolls  Series),  p.  65. 

*  "Audita  Regis  captione,  Walterus  Rothomageiisis  Archiepiscopus,  et 
Ofeteri  domini  Regis  Justiciarii,  miserunt  Abbatem  de  Boxeleia  et  Abbatem 
de  Ponte-Roberti  Alemanniam  ad  quaercudum  Regom  Anglise  qui  cum  totam 
Alemanniam  peragrassent,  et  Regem  non  invenissent,  Bavariam  ingressi 
sunt,  et  obviaverunt  Regi  in  villa  quaj  dicitur  Oxefer,  ubi  ducebatur  ad 
Iniperatovem,  habiturus  cum  eo  colloquium  in  die  Palmarum."  (Hoveden's 
C/i.ro?U(;«  (Rolls  Series),  vol.  ii.,  p.  198.)  "Interim  prtedicti  Abbates...quos 
Justiciarii  Anglife  ad  quaerendum  Regem  miserant,  redierunt  in  Angliam  post 
Pascha,  narrantes  pacem  factam  esse  inter  Imperatorem  et  Regem  Angliee,  in 
hunc  modum,  quod  Rex  Anglife  dabit  Imperatori  Romanorum  centum  millia 
marcarum  argenti  de  redemptions, "  etc.  {Jbid.  iii.  205.)  Dr.  Stubbs 
suggests  that  "Oxefer"  is  probably  Ochsenfurt,  on  the  Mayne,  near 
Wurtzburg. 


THE  ABROTS.  77 

Abbot  Robert's  eventful  and  stirring  life  came  to  a 
close  in  1214/  wben  lie  was  succeeded  by  Mm  wlio  bad 
been  bis  companion  on  many  commissions,  and  in  his 
journey  in  searcb  for  Cceur-de-Leou,  John,  the  Prior  of 
Robertsbridge.  Of  tliis  Abbot  Jolin  comparatively  little  is 
recorded.  An  event,  however,  which  occurred  in  1232 
presents  him  in  a  somewhat  unfavourable  light.  Grave 
complaints  had  been  made  to  Pope  Gregory  IX.  that  great 
irregularities  existed  among  the  Religious  Houses  of  the 
"  exempt"  Monks  in  Kent,  and  he  issued  a  commission 
to  Abbot  John  of  Boxley  and  the  Abbot  of  Bekeham 
(?  Bayham)  to  investigate  the  charges  made  against  tliem.~ 
It  may  have  been  unfortunate,  considering  the  jealousy 
which  existed  between  the  two  great  divisions  of  Monks, 
the  Black  and  the  White,  that  two  of  the  one  class  should 
have  been  selected  to  inquire  into  the  doings  of  the  other. 
The  result  not  unnaturally  was  that  the  Visitors  acted 
with  what  was  considered  by  the  victims  undue  severity 
[veliementius).  They  complain  of  being  treated  very 
unjustly,  especially  by  the  Boxley  Abbot,  and  entreat  that 
other  Visitors  may  be  sent.''      This,  however,  did  not  lose 

'  '"A.D.  1214.  Obiit  Robertus  Abbas  de  Boxle."  Annales  de  JFaverleia 
{A.  Monastici,  Luard).     Rolls  Series,  vol.  ii.,  p.  282. 

2  Annales  Dunstiiplia  (KoWa  S^Yins),  p.  133.  Matt.  Paris,  Historia  Major, 
iii.,  288. 

^  "Gregorius  Episcopus,  Serviis  servonmi  Dei,  dilectis  filiis  de  Boxle 
Cisterciensis,  et  de  Bekeham  {'{  Bayham).  Premonstratensis  Ordinis, 
Abbatibus, ...et  Prsecaturi  ecclesife  Christi  Cantuariensis,  salutem..  Intelligi- 
mus  si  quidem  quod  nonnuUa  monasteria  exempta  Cantuariensis  Diocesis  in 
spiritualibus  deformata  et  in  temporalibus  sint  graviter  diminuta,  dum 
Monachi  et  Moniales  eorum,  diabolica  suggestione  seducti,  immemores  pacti 
Domini  sui,  quo  non  solum  sua  sed  seipsos  professione  ordinis  abnegarunt... 
non  sine  furti  uota  et  noxia  Monasteriorum  bona  improprie  sibi  approprient 
et  retentant,"  etc.     (Matthew  Paris,  Chron.  Maj.  Rolls  Series,  iii.,  238.) 

"  Alandati  igitur  hujus  executores  veliementius  et  secus  quam  deceret,  &;c.  ; 
primo,  in  Abbatiam  Sancti  Augustini  Cantuarice  ingerentes,  seque  super  se 
incomposite  atFerentes,  prpeeipue  Abbas  de  Boxle,  adeo  Monachos  perterrue- 
runt,  qui  Romam  profecti  consumpto  labore,  et  etiusa  pecunia,  alios  visitatores 
impetrarunt."     Ibid.,  p.  239. 


78  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Mm  favour  at  Court,  for  in  1222  Henry  III.  sent  him  to 
negotiate  a  peace  with.  Philip  Augustus  of  France/  and 
some  years  later  he  had  a  still  higher  honour  conferred  on 
him,  being  chosen  by  his  brother  Cistercians  to  be  the 
second  English  Abbot  of  Citreaux  itself." 

After  this,  for  nearly  200  years,  the  succession  of 
Abbots  becomes  more  difficult  to  trace.  The  Abbey 
seemed  to  be  subsiding  into  comparative  insignificance, 
and  its  Abbots  only  at  rare  intervals  apjDcaring  on  the 
public  scene.  Few  incidents  of  note  in  the  lives  of  any  of 
them  were  deemed  worthy  of  record.  For  instance,  in  the 
Kentish  Pedes  Flniiim,  the  name  of  one  Simon  occurs 
incidentally  in  1243;  then,  five  years  after,  that  of  an 
Alexander.^  Gervase  mentions  a  John,  as  being  Abbot 
in  1289,*  and  it  was  probably  this  Abbot  John  to 
whom  Edward  I.  assigned  the  delicate  commission  of 
trying  to  negociate  with  Philip  IV.  for  the  restoration 
of  that  much  disputed  and  troublesome  appanage  of 
the  English  Crown,  Gascony,  having  signally  failed  to 
enforce  his  claim  by  arms.^  Ten  years  after,  how- 
ever, his  successor,  Egbert,  appears  among  those  who 
were  to  take  part  in  the  solemn  obsequies  of  Philip^s 
Queen,   Johanna.^ 

Then  in  1356  incidental  mention  is  made  of  an  Abbot 
John  in  the  Annals   of  Melsa,''  and  again  another  of  the 

1  Patent  Rolls,  7  Henry  III.,  m.  7  d. 

2  Rymer's  Fve^era,  vol.  i.,  p.  168. 

^  Pedes  Finium,  in  Codex  de  Kent  (Maidstone  Museum). 
■*  Gervase,  Gesta  Regum,  i.,  291. 

*  Patent  Rolls,  22  Edward  I.,  m.   7  d,  and  Rymer's  Fcedera,   vol.  i.,    "  De 
facto  Vasconise  fraudulenter  obtentse  a  Rege  Francise  et  nequiter  detentae." 
«  Close  Rolls,  33  Edward  I.,  m.  16  d.     Rymer's  Fcedera,  vol.  i.,  p.  971. 
^  Okronica  Monasterii  de  Melsa  (Rolls  Series). 


THE  ABBOTS.  79 

same  name  in  1395.^  In  Arclibisliop  Cliiclieley's  Register 
at  Lambeth-  appears  the  name  of  Richard  Sheppey  as 
Abbot  in  1415.  Then  comes  a  long  interval,  in  which 
only  the  name  of  another  Abbot  John  occurs,  in  1443,  in 
connection    with    the    apostate    Monk    William    Pounds.'^ 

However,  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  light 
breaks  in  from  another  source.  Among  the  municipal 
records  of  Maidstone  are  preserved  the  accounts  of  the 
long  extinct  "  Fraternity  of  Corpus  Christi,^'  in  which,  on 
the  lists  of  those  who  had  been  contributors  to  the  funds 
of  this  institution  are  the  names  of  two  Boxley  Abbots — 
JoHjf  WoRMSBLL,  from  1474  to  1481,  and  from  the  following 
year  to  1490  that  of  Thomas  Essex. ^ 

This  brings  us  again  into  touch  with  the  political  life 
of  the  country.  In  1489  Henry  VII.  had  demanded  a 
clerical  subsidy,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  cer- 
tified the  Treasury  and  Barons  of  the  Exchequer  that 
he  had  appointed  the  Abbot  and  Convent  of  Boxley  to 
collect  all  the  dues  within  his  diocese  and  jurisdiction," 
a  mark,  no  doubt,  of  confidence  and  favour. 

But  Thomas'  successor,  John,  had  apparently  allowed 
the  collection  of  the  subsidy  and  the  Abbey's  own  quota 
to  fall  into  arrears.  To  escape  from  the  trouble  and  the 
debt,  he  got  himself  transferred  from  the  Abbey  to  the 
Vicarage  !  The  Lambeth  Register  tells  us  that  iu  the 
year  1524  Abbot  John  was  appointed  to  be  Vicar  of 
Boxley  ;     on    the    presentation,    too,    of    a    layman,    one 

1  Harleian  MSS.,  55  B.     Addl.  MSS.,  1648. 

^  Abp.  Chichele's  Register,  i.,  f.  9,  b. 

^  Litterce  Cantuarienses  (Rolls  Series),  iii.,  175.     See  above,  p.   45. 

*  This  distinctive  name  we  gather  from  the  Pedes  Finium,  and  also  from 
Harleian  MSS.,  cc  16. 

^  Materials  illustrative  of  the  Rei'jii  of  Ilciiry   VII.,  ii.,  426. 


80  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Thomas  Penglose.^  The  change  seems  a  strange  one ; 
a  Cistercian  Monk  into  a  parish  Priest,  and  that  in  the 
same  parish ;  3-et  an  insight  into  the  surrounding  circum- 
stances will  help  to  supply  motives  for  such  a  step. 

Two  years  before  the  Abbey  had  been  charged  with 
the  sum  of  £50  as  its  share  towards  a  further  subsidy  (or 
loan  as  it  was  called)  which  the  King  demanded  towards 
defraying  the  expences  of  an  invasion  of  France  which 
Henry  threatened;  and  the  money  was  not  forthcoming.^ 
Again,  in  the  same  year,  the  presumptuous  act  of  (Sir) 
Adam  Bradshawe  (who  was  supposed  to  have  been  himself 
connected  with  the  Abbey)/  was  perpetrated,  being  no 
less  than  the  tearing  down  from  the  Abbey  Chapel  door  a 
document  emanating  from  the  Pope  himself,  and  bearing 
the  seal  of  the  Archbishop,  in  Avhich  certain  doctrines 
that  were  promulgated  by  Martin  Luther  had  been 
denounced.  For  this  act  Adam  Bradshawe  had  been  im- 
prisoned ;  but  that  failed  to  purge  his  crime,  or  to  wipe  out 
the  suspicion  and  odium  which  attached  to  the  Abbey. 
Indeed  the  Abbey  seemed  altogether  in  a  bad  way;  and 
the  poor  Abbot  may  only  have  exemplified  the  proverbial 
rat  by  swimming  away  from  the  sinking  ship.  Whatever 
his  motives,  he  left  the  Abbey  for  the  Yicarage. 

^  Quarto  die  meiisis  Julii  Anno  Domini  predicto  apud  Lamhith  Dominus 
admisit  Dominum  Johaunem,  Monachiim  Abbatein  Monasterii  de  Boxley,  cum 
quo  ad  int'rascripta  per  sedem  apostolicam  sufficienter  et  legitime  extitit 
dispensatum,  ad  Vicariam  perpetuam  Ecclesie  Parocliialis  de  Boxley  sue 
Cantuariensis  Diocesis,  per  liberara  Resignacionem  Magistri  Thome  Peerson, 
Clerici,  ultimi  incumbeutis  ibidem,  &c.,  vacantem  :  ad  quam  per  discretum 
virum  Magistrum  Jacobum  Penulase  (or  Penglose)  Arcium  Magistrum  ipsius 
Vicarie  hac  vice  pa.tronura,  &e. ,  &c.,  extitit  presentatus.  Archbishop  War- 
ham's  Register,  f.  395.  How  the  Presentation  now  fell  into  lay  hands  it 
seems  difficult  to  explain. 

-  Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic,  of  Henry  VIIL  (Brewer), 
vol.iii.,  Part  ii.,  p.  1047. 

3  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  Part  i.,  p.  541.   See  a  full  account  at  page  51. 


THE    ABBOTS.  81 

His  successor  Abbot  was  also  a  John.^  His  name  was 
Dobbes  or  Dobbs,  as  it  is  variously  spelt.  This  worthy 
was  evidently  in  high,  favour  with  his  neighbour  laymen, 
for  the  stream  of  pious  benefactions  were  still  flowing  in  to 
the  enrichment  of  the  Abbey^  though  already  doomed ;  for 
even  in  1530  grants  of  land  were  being  made  to  it."  He 
was  destined,  however,  to  be  the  "  last  of  his  race/'  and, 
as  it  were,  its  scapegoat.  They  who  had  gone  before  had 
been  sowing  to  the  wind ;  it  was  for  him  to  reap  the  whirl- 
wind. It  still  is  incredible  that  he,  as  Abbot,  should 
have  been,  as  he  represented  to  the  Commissioners,  utterlj^ 
ignorant  of  the  trickeries  of  the  "  Rood  of  Grace." 

Some  high  in  power  pleaded  for  him.  Warham,  in  a  letter 
to  (Jardinal  Wolsey,  says,  "  The  Abbot,  as  far  as  I  can 
perceive  and  learn,  is  utterly  disposed  to  live  hardly  and 
precisely  (strictly  and  honestly)  to  bring  the  place  out  of 
debt."^  Then  Robert  Southwell,  the  King's  Commissioner, 
while  pointing  out  the  grievous  neglect  and  waste  that 
had  marked  the  administration  of  the  Abbey,  by  which  a 
rental  that  once  produced  700  marcs,  now  barely  reached 
400,  thinks  "  there  hath  grown  no  decay  by  this  Prior,"  but 
the  blame  lay  with  his  predecessors.*     Yet  on  him  was  to 

^  Harleian  MSS. ,  R.  3.  His  name  also  appears  on  the  list  of  those  sum- 
moned to  Convocation  in  the  year  1529.  (Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry  VIII., 
vol.  iv.,  p.  2701.) 

-  For  instance,  "  Johannes  Fyssher,  de  Maidstan,  in  Comitatu  Cantie, 
generosus,  Petrus  Goldesraythe,  de  Parochia  S'ti  Andree  Apostoli  infra 
limites  Monasterii  Beate  Marie  de  Boxele,  in  Com.  predic',  et  Ricardus 
Austyn,  at  Astell,  de  parochia  de  Boxele,  yeoman,"  gave  and  conceded  to 
Abbot  John  6  messuages,  7  Gardinn,  48  acres,  and  1  virgate  .  .  .  lying  on  the 
north  of  the  main  road,  for  the  Abbot  and  Convent  to  hold  in  perpetuity. 
"Datum  vicesimo  quarto  die  Sept.  anno  regni  dom.  Henrici  octavi,  Dei 
gratia,  &c.,  &c.,  vicesimo  primo."     (Harleian  Roll,  R.  3.) 

^  State  Papers  of  Henry  VIII.  (Record  Office),  vol:  ii.,  Part  ii.  No.  1353. 
Arch.  Cant.,  iii.,  150.     Appendix  I. 

*  Sujjpression  of  Monasteries  (Camden  Society),  p.  172.   See  above  page  62. 

G 


82  HISTORY   OF    BOXLEY. 

fall  tlie  doom  wliicli  tliey  who  had  gone  before  had  the 
rather  merited. 

Shnple-minded  as  John  Dobbs  may  have  been^  or  repre- 
sented himself  as  being/  he  was  clearly  far-seeing  enough 
to  mark  the  set  of  the  tide,  and  to  make  timely  provision 
against  it.  To  him  "  Surrender  with  a  good  grace,"  and  a 
probable  "  Pension,"  were  preferable  to  resistance  and  ''  a 
short  shrift."  So,  to  escape  such  a  fate  as  befell  the 
recalcitrant  Abbots  John  Whiting,  of  Glastonbury,  Hugh 
Farringdon,  of  Eeading,  and  John  Beche,  of  Colchester, 
and  to  secure  by  surrender  the  compensation  of  retirement 
with  a  pension,  as  had  been  granted  to  Robert  Pentecost, 
of  Abingdon,  and  others,  he  did  not  wait  to  be  summoned, 
but  offered  to  surrender ;  and  so  retiring  with  the  honours 
of  war,  obtained  a  goodly  pension  of  £50  a  year  for  himself, 
and  smaller  ones  for  each  of  the  Monks.  Thomas 
Goldweil,  the  last  of  the  Priors  of  Canterbury,  fared 
even  better ;  he  received  a  pension  of  £80  a  year,  and 
having  "  conformed,"  was  oifered  a  Prebendary  Stall. 
This,  however,  he  declined,  and  lived  in  retirement," 
while  Walter  Philips,  his  neighbour  Prior  of  Eochester, 
a  few  years  after,  glided  from  the  extinct  Priory  into  the 
newly  formed  Deanery,  which  he  enjoyed  for  thirty  years.^ 

With  John  Dobbs  and  his  Pension  ends  the  tale  of  the 
Abbots  of  Boxley. 

1  He  declared  to  the  Commissioners,  when  they  came  to  take  over 
possession,  that  he  was  as  much  surprised  as  they  at  the  mechanism  of  the 
Rood.     See  page  60. 

2  Bsittevley's  So7nne7-'s  Antiquities  of  Ccmter bury,  Partiii.,  p.  116. 
^  Le  Neve's  Fasti,  page  252. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE     CLERGY. 


BOXLEY  was  at  first  a  Rectory;  and  not  until  the 
latter  part  of  tlie  14tli  Century  was  tlie  Vicarial 
office  introduced  in  its  place,  the  Rectorial  endowments 
being  absorbed  into  the  revenues  of  the  Priory  of  St. 
Andrew,  at  Rochester,  to  whom  Henry  I.,  on  the  occasion 
of  a  visit  to  that  city,  had  granted  the  Advowson.^  To 
the  pious  liberality  of  the  "  Scholar  King,^^  as  exhibited 
in  this  and  many  similar  instances,  may  doubtless  be  traced 
the  terms  of  praise  in  which  contemporary  monastic  writers 
speak  of  him  as  being  "  the  most  noble  King/' 

The  patronage  of  Boxley  Church,  with  two  or  three 
exceptions,  remained  with  the  Rochester  Priory,  and  has 
continued  with  the  Dean  and  Chapter  ever  since  the  Refor- 
mation. The  first  interruption  in  the  line  of  patronage 
occurred  in  the  troubled  reign  of  Stephen,  when  "  Robert 

1  Carta  Henrici  I.  Super  advocatione  ecclesie  de  Boxle,  &c.  "  Henrious 
Rex  Anglorum  Anfrido  Vicecomiti  et  omnibus  baronibus  Francigenis  et 
Anglis  de  Ghent,  salutem.  Sciatis  me  dedisse  ecclesie  Sancti  Andrea  de 
Rovecestra  in  dedicatione  ipsius  ecclesie,  ubi  presens  affui,  ecclesiam  de 
Boxle,  et  quiquid  ad  earn  pertinet  in  terris,  et  in  decimis,  et  in  oblacionibus, 
cum  omnibus  consuetudinibus,  et  libertatibus,  et  rectitudinibus,  sicut  unquam 
habuit  capellanus  meus  Galfridus  et  Ansfridus  clericus  ante  ilium," — 
Cott.  MSS.,  A.X.  9.      Registrum  Roffensc,  p.  177. 


84  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

tlie  Archdeacon"^  seems  to  liave  claimed  it  for  himself, 
until  Ascellinus,  tlie  then  Bishop  of  Rochester,  obtained  a 
mandate  from  Pope  Celestinus  II.  denouncing  the  claim  as 
"contrary  to  justice  and  canonical  authority,"  and  calling 
on  the  Archdeacon  to  restore  it  to  the  Priory.  Then, 
twice  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the  presentation  to  the 
Vicarage,  according  to  the  Lambeth  Registers,  passed 
through  the  hands  of  laymen. 

Of  the  Rectorial  period  traces  may  still  be  discovered 
in  the  names  of  fields  which  formerly  belonged  to  the 
"Parsonage"-  as  it  was  then  called,  the  Rector  then  being 
the  only  "persona"  of  the  Parish.  One  other  more 
substantial  evidence  still  stands  in  the  form  of  a  very 
capacious  barn,  sometimes  called  a  Refectory,  now  turned 
into  two  cottages,  and  recently  purchased  by  the  present 
Vicar  from  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners,  and  attached 
to  the  Vicarial  property. 

Of  the  earlier  Rectors,  most  of  whom  were  foreigners — 
for  here,  as  elsewhere,  he  who  claimed  to  be  successor  of 
St.  Peter  was  in  the  habit  of  provisioning  his  hungry 
sheep  of  Rome  on  the  more  fertile  pastures  of  the  English 
Church'' — the  first    name    that    can   be   traced  is    that    of 


^  Cotton.  MSS.  Domitian,  A.X.  9.,  quoted  in  Registrum  Roff.,  p.  40. 
AVho  tins  Archdeacon  Robert  could  be  does  not  seem  very  clear,  for  neither 
at  Rochester  or  Canterbury  was  there  an  Archdeacon  of  that  name,  according 
to  Le  Neve. 

^  A  "Terrier"  of  these  lands  is  preserved  in  the  Diocesan  Registry  at 
Canterbury.     See  Appendix  K. 

*  The  Popes  not  only  claimed  for  themselves  the  right  of  nominating  to 
any  vacant  benefices  in  England,  but  on  the  pretext  of  guarding  against  the 
possibility  of  any  parish  being  left  without  a  Pastor,  went  so  far  as  to  antici- 
pate any  vacancy  in  a  valuable  living,  by  providing,  as  they  termed  it,  for 
such  vacancy  by  assigning  it  to  some  hanger-on,  these  appointments  being 
called  provisiones. 


THE   CLERGY.  85 

Ansfridus,  of  whom  nothing  seems  to  be  on  record. 
After  liim  came  Galfeidus,  a  Chaplain  of  Henry  1.,  who 
was  holding-  the  Rectory  when  the  King  granted  the 
advowson  to  the  Priory  of  St.  Andrew,  at  Rochester.^ 
Nothing  certain  is  known  of  his  future,  but  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  conjecture  that  this  Roj^al  favourite  was 
in  time  raised  to  the  Episcopal  Bench,  and  was  the 
Galfridus  Rufus  whom  Henry  made  his  High  Chancellor 
in  1107,  and  Bishop  of  Durham  in  1129." 

Now  follows  a  blank  of  a  century  and  more,  daring 
which  no  name  occurs  of  a  Rector  of  Boxley  among  the 
Monastic  writers.  In  the  "Annals  of  Edmund  de  Hadden- 
hani,"  himself  a  Monk  of  the  Rochester  Priory,  is  an  entry 
of  the  presentation  in  the  year  1240  of  Gregorius  de 
Romanic  to  the  Rectory,  but  evidently  it  was  disputed, 
for  with  the  consent  of  the  Legate  (Cardinal  Ottoboni), 
it  was  referred  to  the  Chancellor  of  St.  Paul's  (Henry  de 
Cornhull),  who  decided  in  his  favour.^  Of  his  previous  or 
after  life  it  seems  impossible  to  glean  any  particulars. 

The  Registers  at  Lambeth  now  come  to  our  aid.'*  In 
1283  one  Alliotti,  of  whom,  too,  nothing  is  known,   save 

^  See  foot  note  on  page  83. 

-  Godwin's  Dc  Prcsulibus,  p.  734.     Le  l^eve's  Fudi,  p.  3S7. 

^  "Anno  MCCXL.  Data  est  sententia  a  Domino  Caucellario  S.  Pauli, 
Loudon,  per  consensum  Domini  Legati,  pro  Domino  Gregorio  de  Romanio 
prresentato  a  Priore  et  Conventu  Roffa?  ad  Ecclesiam  de  Boxle,  xv.  Martii,  ct 
sic  prsesentatiis  obtinuit  ecclesiam  illam."  Edmund  de  Hadenham's  Annales 
Eccl.  Roff.    Anglia  Sacra,  i.,  349.    Flores  Historiariun  (Rolls  Series),  p.  243. 

•*  All  the  Registers  prior  to  Peckham's  time  are  lost,  His  predecessor  in 
the  See,  Abp.  Kilwardy,  on  being  made  a  Cardinal,  retired  to  Rome,  and 
carried    off  with    him    all    the    Registers    and    much    of  the    plate    from 

Lambeth  ;  and  all  efforts  to  recover  them  ha\  e  been  in  vain. 


86  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

that  lie  was   a   Canon   of   SS.   Jolin   and   Paul^    of   Rome, 
and  was  instituted  by  Abp.  Peckliam.^ 

After  him  we  welcome  an  Englishman,  and  judging  by 
his  name,  a  member  of  an  old  Kentish  family,  Thomas  de 
Cobeham.-  The  only  clue  to  his  connection  with  Boxley 
occurs  in  an  entry  in  the  Archbishop  Reynold's  Register,'^ 
at  Lambeth,  where  he  is  mentioned  as  being  Rector  of 
Boxley,  and  being  party  to  a  claim  made  on  the  Abbey 
for  Tithes  withheld  from  him.  This  was  in  1303,  when  his 
career  was  already  giving  promise  of  distinction.  In  1299 
he  had  received  from  Edward  I.  a  Prebendary  Stall  at 
Hereford,  two  years  after  the  Archdeaconry  of  Lewes,  and 
at  the  time  must  have  held  the  sinecure  Rectory  of 
Hollingbourne,  as  well  as  the  Rectory  of  Boxley,  and  was 
promoted  in  1311  to  the  Sub-deanery  of  Salisbury,  and 
subsequently  to  a  Prebendary  Stall  at  St.  Paul's,  and  to 
the  Precentorship  of  York,  and  eventually  to  the  Bishopric 
of  Worcester."^  But  a  still  higher  honour  was  before  him, 
that  of  being  elected  by  the  Canterbury  Chapter  for  the 
Primacy.  Though  of  this  honour  he  was  deprived  by  the 
intriguing  intervention  of  the  King,  Edward  II.,  who 
obtained  that  office  for  Walter  Re3molds,  of  whom  Hook 
says  that  "  Of  all  the  Primates  who  have  occupied  the  See 
of  Canterbury,  few  have  been  less  qualified  to  discharge 
the  duties  than  Walter  Reynolds.^  Still  an  honour  of 
which  neither  King  nor  Pope  could  deprive  him  was  one 
which  was  accorded  to   him  by  the  general  voice  of  the 

1  Abp.   Teckham's  Register,  f.  20,  li.  -  Ibid.,  f.  36,  b. 

•^     Abp.  Reynold's  Register. 

*  Anglia  Sacra,  i.,  p.  532.  ;  Godwin,  De  Presulibus,  p.  46  ;  Le  Neve's 
lasti,  p.  296  ;  Newcourt's  Repertorius. 

•'  Lices  of  the  ArrMisInqis,  vol.  ill  ,  p.  455. 


THE   CLERGY.  87 

people,  that  he  was  commonly  known  as  "  The  Grood 
Parson."^ 

The  next  name  in  the  succession  of  Rectors,  aad  the  one 
with  which  it  would  seem  to  have  closed,  is  that  of 
Johannes  Borbach,  who  was  presented  in  1350." 

With  the  year  1387  commences  the  new  arrangement  of 
the  VICARS  ;  for  in  that  year  Adam  Smith,  Capellanus, 
was  admitted  to  the  Perpetual  Vicarage  of  Boxley  {de 
novo  creatam  et  nvilrnatam) ,  on  the  presentation,  not  of  the 
Convent,  but  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester.  The  change  was 
effected  under  the  brief  Primacy  of  Simon  de  Sudbury,  the 
victim  of  Wat  Tyler's  insurrection.  The  step  was  quite  in 
accordance  with  this  Archbishop's  rule,  for  the  Lambeth 
Registers  constantly  show  his  determination,  if  possible,  to 
enforce  the  residence  of  Clergy.  The  primary  object  of 
the  change,  no  doubt,  was  to  secure  a  resident  Priest, 
whereas  the  Rector's  duties  were  probably  generally  per- 
formed by  some  deputy,  in  the  absence  of  the  Rector, 
whose  multifarious  duties  would  compel  him  to  be  an 
absentee.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  this  object  was 
imperfectly  realised  by  the  first  Vicar,  for  Abp.  Courtenay, 
in  1383,  within  two  years  of  his  coming  to  the  Primacy, 
found  it  necessar}-  to  sequestrate  the  Living  on  account  of 
the  Vicar's  non-residence.  About  this  period  the  name  of 
Robert  Maeke  occurs  in  a  dispute  between  the  Rochester 
and    the    Boxley    authorities,    where    he  is    described    as 

^  "  Vir  tanta  eruditionis  fama,  tarn  egregia  insuper  vitse  sanctimonia, 
illustris,  ut  vix  alio  quam  Boni  sen  Prohi  Clerici  titulo  innotesceret,  et  ad 
suramam  Ecclesia  Auglicanse  dignitatem  omnium  votis  jampridem  desig- 
naretur."     {Historia  de  Episcopis  Wigornensihus.)     Anglia  Sacra,  i.,  532. 

-  Islip's  Register,  f.  203.  This  is  recorded  as  being  the  joint  presentation 
of  the  Bishop  and  the  Prior  and  Chapter  of  Rochester. 


88  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

"persona    de    Boxle/'    but    notliing    more    seems    to    be 
recorded  or  known  about  him.^ 

A  vacancy  in  tlie  Vicarage  again  occurring  in  1890,^  the 
Bishop  of  Rochester  appointed  Nicholaus  Julian,  and  on 
his  diriiissio,  in  1406,  the  Prior  and  Chapter  presented 
Peter  Beech  (or  Beck,  or  Bbuk,  as  it  is  variously  spelt). 
After  an  incumbency  of  above  40  years  he  died  in  1449, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Gulielmus  Snell.  The  inscrip- 
tion on  his  tombstone  tells  that  he  was  of  All  Souls' 
College,  Oxford,  and  that  he  died  in  1451,  tAvo  years  after 
his  appointment. '^ 

The  next  name  that  occurs  is  that  of  John  Munden, 
who  is  incidentally  mentioned  in  the  Records  of  the 
"Fraternity  of  Corpus  Christi"*  at  Maidstone,  but  of 
him  nothing  seems  to  be  known  save  that  he  was  Vicar 
of  Boxley  about  the  year  1479,  and  died  in  1489,  when 
the  Prior  and  Convent  presented  one  of  their  Chaplains- 
John  Fletcher,  to  the  vacant  Vicarage.  He  appears  as  ; 
witness  to  the  Will  of  one  James  Neale^'  in  1501.  After 
him  came  Chrystopher  Danyell,  Avliose  name  also  is  found 
as  witness  to  one  Will  and  executor  under  another^  in  the 

*  Robertas  Marre,  persona  Ecclesie  de  Boxle." — Cott.  MSS.  Faustina, 
G  v.,  f.  22,  b.     Rcgistrum  Roffeiise,  p.  181. 

-  Abp.  Coiivteiiay's  Register,  f.  39. 

•'  A  coloured  print,  preserved  in  the  Clement  T.  Sniytlie's  Collection 
in  the  Maidstone  Museum,  shows  that  the  now  lost  brass,  which  was 
then  in  the  Chancel,  but  has  since  been  removed  into  the  middle  of  the 
Nave,  of  which  only  the  incised  stone  and  the  inscription  now  remains, 
did  exist  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  inscription  may  be  still  deciphered  ;  it 
runs  thus:  "  Decimo  die  Marcii  anno  Graciae  MCCCCLL,  Magister 
Gullielmns  Snell,  quondam  de  Collegio  Animarum,  Oxon,  istius  {sic.) 
ecclesise.  Vicarius,  ecclesiastics  traditur  sepulturae,  Cujus  anima  in  pace 
requiescat." 

•*  Maidstone  Municipal  Records. 

5  James  Nea^e's  Will,  Canterbury  Consistory  Court,  vii.,  18. 

"  Will  of  Thomas  Boor,  Ihid.  vii.,  9.  Will  of  Johanna  Busshe,  Ibid,  v.. 
ri9,  li.     (Jccasionally  a  personal  be(picst  is  made  to  a  man's  "Confessor,"  or 


I 


THE   CLERGY.  89 

beginning  of  the  Century.  On  his  death,  in  1514,  Thomas 
Pereson,  or  Pearson,  was  inducted  by  Abp.  Warham/  and 
died  in  1528,  when,  as  ah-eady  noticed,^  he  was  succeeded 
by  Abbot  John,  from  the  neighbouring  Abbey,  Avho  held 
the  Vicarage  till  he  was  promoted  to  the  Abbey  of 
Citeaux.  He  was  probably  followed  by  Robert  Jonson, 
whose  name  is  given  in  "  Valor  Ecclesiasticus "  as  being 
Vicar  in  1538.  Then  follow  two  names,  for  which  we  are 
indebted  to  the  Canterbui-y  Records  :  John  Puyzant,  and 
Richard  Adamson,^  of  whom,  as  to  the  circumstances  of 
their  appointments,  nothing  is  said,  save  that  the  one 
succeeded  the  other  in  1554.  That  date  points  out 
to  a  time  of  trouble  and  confusion  between  Cranmer's 
deposition  and  Pole's  appointment. 

Next  comes  Roger  Jones,  of  whose  appointment  there 
seems  to  be  no  record ;  and  yet  doctrinal  changes  were 
taking  place  in  his  incumbency,  (for  his  was  that 
troubled  period  of  transition  during  the  reign  of  Philip 
and  Mary,)  of  which  some  very  interesting  signs  may  be 
detected  in  the  Wills  of  that  period,  in  which  his  name 
appears  as  witness,  and  apparently  often  as  draughts- 
man also  ;    Margerie  Brampton,^   in  1557,  commends   her 

to  the  Vicar  of  the  Parish  :  among  these  is  one  of  a  singular  character,  made 
hy  Richard  Seebyrde,  in  1477,  "I  will  that  the  Vycar  have  iiid.  when  that 
he  come  home  to  my  place  and  feche  me  to  Chirche  of  Boxle. "  Archdeacon's 
Court,  Canterbury,  iii.,  8. 

^  Abp.  Warham's  Register,  f.  354,  b. 

-  See  page  79. 

•'  "A.D.  1554.  Dominus  admisit  Ricardum  Adamson,  Presbiterum  ad 
Vicariam  perpetnam  ecclesie  parochialis  de  Boxley  .  .  .  per  resignationem 
Johannis  Puyzant,  ultimi  incumbentis  ejusdem,  vacantem,  ad  quam  per 
Robertum  Ballarde  et  Annam  ejus  uxorem,  nuper  relictam  Henrici  Cooke 
defuncti,  dicte  Vicarie  veros  et  indubitatos  patronos  (ut  dicitur)  presentatus 
extitit." — Canterbury  Chapter  Records,  N.  f.  79. 

■*  Margerie  Brampton's  AVill,  Archdeacon's  Court,  Canterbury,  xxx.,  7. 


90  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

soul  "to  the  Holye  Trinitie/^  breaking  away  from  the  old 
recognised  form  of  commending  it  to  "Almighty  God^ 
the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  and  all  Saints."  While  in  the 
same  year  Stephen  Mason,^  while  making  the  stereotyped 
bequest  of  "Conscience  money"  to  the  High  Altar  for 
tithes  neglected  or  intentionally  withheld,  commends  his 
to  Almighty  God  "  my  Savyour  and  Redeemer,  trusting  to 
be  saved  by  the  shedding  of  hys  preciouse  blond  and 
passyon,  and  to  our  blessed  lady  the  Vyrgyn,  and  all  the 
holy  Companie  of  heaven."  Then  in  1556,  Richard  Brice, 
and  in  1562,  William  Dobbes"  commend  their  souls  to 
"Almighty  God  the  onlye  Redeemer."  In  each  of  these 
Wills  Roger  Jones  (or  Johns,  as  sometimes  spelt)  is  a 
witness,  and  in  that  of  Stephen  Mason,  he  receives  a 
legacy  for  the  relief  of  the  poor." 

The  year  1566  saw  the  appointment  of  Philip  Hilles, 
Roger  Jones's  successor.  It  was  made,  not  by  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  of  Rochester,  but  by  a  Layman,  as  the 
Lambeth  Register'^  says,  one  John  Woltou,  of  Smerden. 
But  who  he  was,  or  how  the  patronage  came  to  him,  does 
not  appear. 

On  Hilles's  death,  in  1589,  there  comes  on  the  scene 
one  who  has  left  his  mark  on  Boxley  in  a  manner 
and  to  an  extent  none  of  those  who  had  gone  before  him 
had  done.  It  is  no  injustice  to  his  predecessors  to  assign 
the  post  of  honour  among  the  Vicars  of  Boxley  to 
GEORGE  CASE,^    who  with    great  modesty    records    his 

1  Mason's  Will,  Consist.  Court,  Canterbury,  xxviii.,  .53,  &:c.  Page  7, 
Appendix  B. 

2  Brice's  Will,  Arelid.  Court,  xxx.,  7.  Dobbes'  Will,  Cons.  Court,  xxx.,  7. 

*  Abp.  Parker's  Register,  August  2.5,  1566.  This  is  probably  a  mistake  for 
Wotton,  of  Smarden. 

*  Abp.  Whitgift's  Register.     Part  I.,  f.  484,  b. 


THE   CLEEGY.  91 

entry  on  the  duties  of  tlie  parish  in  succession  to  Hilles 
as  being  "  multum  inutilis  Ghristi  i^ervus"  The  very 
surroundings — the  genitis  loci — could  hardly  fail  to  affect  a 
man  of  so  classical  a  turn  of  mind^  and  so  poetic  a  tempera- 
ment. Coming  into  the  Parish  in  the  year  1589,  he  would 
find  still  fresh  the  traditions  of  the  Poet  of  Allington 
Castle  and  Boxley  Abbey,  Sir  Thomas  Wiat,  the  elder,  (as 
he  was  always  called  for  distinction),  Avho  Anthony  a'  Wood 
says  was  "  the  delight  of  the  Muses  and  Mankind,"  Case 
would  move  amid  scenes  associated  with  the  frequent 
visits  of  Wiat's  friend  and  companion,  the  still  greater 
Poet,  the  chivalrous  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey  ;  again 
he  would  feel  himself  in  close  touch  with  the  spirit  of  Sir 
Thomas  Wiat  the  Younger,  the  martyr  to  his  devotion 
to  the  injunction  of  his  old  master,  Henry  VIIL,  in 
resisting  the  alliance  of  Mary  with  Philip  of  Spain.  Yet 
again  he  would  revel  in  the  personal  friendship  of  George 
Sandys,  a  kinsman  of  the  Wiats,  who  died  at  Boxley,  and 
whom,  in  recording  his  funeral,  Case  calls  "  the  greatest 
Poet  of  the  age."  What  Avonder  then,  if,  like  the  floating 
microbes  of  infection,  the  spirit  of  poesy  should  have 
travelled  from  the  Abbey  to  the  Vicarage,  and  finding 
there  congenial  soil,  should  on  every  death  connected  with 
the  house  of  Wiat  have  developed  into  a  poetic  offering  to 
the  memory  of  a  lost  parishioner  and  friend  at  the  ex  pence 
of  pages  of  the  Parish  Register. 

Yet  these  very  Parish  Registers  not  only  bear  witness 
to  his  zeal  in  those  outbursts  of  poetic  fire,  but  also  to  his 
industry,  in  a  far  more  practical  and  substantial  form,  for 
it  appears  that  to  his  pen  Boxley  is  indebted  for  the 
earliest  of  these  Church  Records  of  the  Parish.  In  its 
opening  page   we  learn  that  it  was  he  who  rescued  from 


92  HISTORY   OF    BOXLEY. 

oblivion^  perhaps  from  destruction,  all  the  previous  entries, 
comprising-  a  period  of  above  30  years,  wliicli  were  no 
doubt  scribbled  down  on  loose  sheets  of  paper,  but  which 
he  collected  and  with  his  own  hand  transcribed  into  this 
more  permanent  volume,  the  leading  entries  of  which  will 
be  given  in  a  subsequent  Chapter. 

On  Case's  death,  in  1632,^  he  was  succeeded  in  the 
Vicarage  by  a  member  of  the  Wiat  family.  Sir  Thomas 
the  Younger,  who  had  been  beheaded  by  Queen  Mary, 
had  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  William  Haut  (or  Hawte), 
of  Bourn,  and  his  son  George,  to  whom  Elizabeth  restored 
a  portion  of  the  confiscated  Boxley  inheritance,  had  a 
son,  to  whom  he  gave  his  maternal  name  of  Hawte-  and 
in  due  time  obtained  for  him  from  the  Dean  and  Chapter 
of  Rochester  the  Vicarage  of  Boxley.^  Hawte  Wiat,  how- 
ever, only  held  it  for  a  few  years,  dying  in  1638. 

After  him  come  in  rapid  succession  two  Vicars  of  the 
name  of  Balcanqual.  Of  the  former,  John  Balcanqual, 
there  seems  to  be  but  little  on  record.  Anthony  a'  Wood 
only  says  that  he  was  a  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford, 

^  His  son,  Thomas  Case,  is  sometimes  mentioned  as  having  been  Vicar,  or 
Curate  to  his  father  ;  but  this  seems  to  be  an  error.  Neither  in  poetic  fire 
or  in  orthodoxy  did  he  inherit  his  father's  gifts,  though  a  man  of  undoubted 
talent.  He  was  appointed  one  of  the  "Assembly  of  Divines,"  and  held  a 
Cure  in  the  Diocese  of  Norwich,  from  which  he  was  forced  by  Bishop  Wren, 
and  became  Minister  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  Milk  Street,  London,  but  was 
driven  out  of  it  for  refusing  "  the  engagement."  He  then  became  Lecturer 
at  Aldermanbury,  and  St.  Giles,  Cripjilegate,  and  eventually  Rector  of  St. 
Giles-in-the-Fields.  In  1660  he  was  one  of  those  who  waited  on  the  King,  at 
the  Hague,  with  congratulations,  and  the  following  year  was  one  of  the  Com- 
missioners at  the  Savoy  Conference.  He  died  in  1682.  Calamy  describes 
him  as  being  "of  quick  and  warm  spirit,  a  hearty  Lover  of  God,  goodness, 
and  good  men."    Calamy's  Life  of  Baxter,  p.  191.    Nealc's  Puritans,  ii.,  732. 

2  In  the  "  Register"  the  name  is  frequently  spelt  "  Hault." 

^  Abp.  Whitgift's  Register.     Tart  II.,  f.  198,  b. 


THE   CLEEGY.  93 

and  also  held  the  Rectory  of  Tattenhill/  in  Staffordshire. 
He  only  held  this  living  for  two  years,  when  (in  1640) 
Walter  Balcanqual  was  presented  to  it.  Of  him  some 
particulars  may  be  gleaned.  The  son  of  a  Presbyterian 
Minister,  who  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  Episcopacy,  he 
became  a  staunch  Royalist,  and  rose  in  high  favour  with 
Charles  I.  A  Fellow  of  Pembroke  College,  Oxford,  in 
1611,  he  was  in  1617  made  a  King's  Chaplain,  and  soon 
after  appointed  Master  of  the  Savoy.  In  the  following 
year  he  was  sent  to  the  Synod  of  Dort  to  represent  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  In  1624  he  was  appointed  Dean  of 
Rochester,  and  in  1639  transferred  to  that  of  Durham. ~ 
On  vacating  the  Mastership  of  Savoy,  he  was  succeeded 
there  for  a  short  time  by  that  convicted  impostor  and 
Popish  spy,  Antonio  de  Domini,  Archbishop  of  Spalatro. 
From  Boxley  and  the  Deanery  of  Durham  the  too  loyal 
Balcanqual  was  expelled  in  1644,  when  he  found  refuge 
in  Chirke  Castle,  in  Denbighshire,'^  the  house  of  Sir 
Thomas  Middleton,  where  he  died  in  the  following  year ; 
and  a  Monument  in  the  Church  marks  his  burial  place, 
while  an  inscription  from  a  pen  no  less  honourable  and 
illustrious  than  that  of  Bishop  Pearson^'  testifies  to  his 
worth  as  having  "  adorned  all  the  offices  he  held  by  his 
conspicuous  virtues."-' 

1  John  Balcanqual  had  a  dispensation  in  163S  to  hold  the  Rectory  of 
Tattenhill,  in  Staffordshire,  with  the  Vicarage  of  Boxley.  State  Pai^ers 
(Domestic  Series),  1637,    viii.,  p.  ISS. 

-  Athence  Oxonienses,  iii.  ISO.  F/'s(i,  i.  383.  ^Melville's  Memoirs. 
Walker's  Sufferings  of  the  Ctcr;ni. 

^  At  one  time  a  pronounced  Pai-lianientarian,  he  lived  (to  use  the  words 
of  Clai'endon)  "to  wipe  out  the  memory  of  the  ill  footsteps  of  his  youth" 
by  becoming  a  staunch  Royalist.     History  of  the  llflirllion,  Bk.  8  (1644). 

*  The  Author  of  the  Exposition  of  the  Creed. 

^  "  Omnia  hicc  ofRcia,  sive  dignitates,  magnis  virtutibus  ornavit." 


94  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Into  his  place  was  intruded^  in  1644^  Thomas  Heynes  (or 
Haymes)^  a  creature  of  the  Puritan  party,^  who  must  have 
so  far  managed  to  adapt  himself  to  the  shifting  winds  of 
religious  opinion  during  the  next  twenty  years  that  he 
"  conformed/^  and  so  remain  undisturbed  in  his  Vicarage 
at  Boxley ;  for  it  was  not  till  his  death^  in  1678,  that 
Humphrey  Lynde  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  The 
preceding  year  Lynde  had  been  placed  by  Abp.  Juxon 
in  the  Curacy  of  All  Saints',  Maidstone,  and  retained  both 
Cures  till  his  death  in  1690.  It  is  generally  supposed  that 
he  was  the  son  of  the  Humphrey  Lynde  whose  Treatise 
against  Rome  had  been  condemned  by  Archbishop  Laud's 
Chaplain,  and  who  afterwards,  and  perhaps  in  consequence^ 
became  a  most  bitter  Puritan  pamphleteer.-  The  son 
furnished  an  instance  of  the  tolerant  and  conciliatory 
spirit  of  Abp.  Sancroft,  who  repaid  the  father's  hatred  of 
Episcopacy  by  recognising  the  worth  of  his  son,  and 
showing  him  marked  favour.^   A  still  more  marked  instance 

1  At  the  end  of  the  Church  Register  occurs  the  following  entry,  referring 
to  this  period,  and  bearing  date  1646  :  "The  second  Sabb'.in  March,  after 
three  years  preparation  (by  ye  preaching  of  ye  glorious  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ),  we  whose  names  are  here  under  written,  entered  into  Church  fellow- 
shipp  under  ye  ministry  of  Tho'  Haymes,  set  (apart  by)  God,  and  sent  by  ye 
State  of  ye  Kingdom  to  ye  same  work  : 

The  Lady  Mary  Wiat,  vid.  (widow  of  Sir  Francis), 

Hen.  Barrow  et  uxor  ejus, 

Steven  Geery  et  uxor  ejus, 

Tho'.  ToUhurst,  et  ejus  uxor, 

Tho'.  Allen  Cal, 

Edward  Couchman, 

Jerimiah  Harpe  et  ejus  uxor, 

Margret  Cultup, 

Caterina  "Woolet,  virgo, 

George  Charlton, 

Steven  Leigle." 
^  Athence  Oxonienses,  ii.,  601.     Prynne's  Canterburie's  Doome,  p.  185. 
^  Abp.  Bancroft's  Register,  f.  376. 


THE   CLERGY.  95 

of  that  tolerant  and  conciliatory  spirit  which  existed  in  the 
Church  after  the  Restoration  was  evinced  in  the  appoint- 
ment to  the  Archbishopric  of  Glasgow  of  Robert  Leighton, 
the  son  of  the  noted  Puritan,  Alexander  Leighton,  for 
whose  rabid  work  against  Prelacy,  "  Zion's  Plea/'  the 
Star  Chamber  had  condemned  him  to  have  his  ears  cut  off. 

On  Lynde's  death  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Rochester  gave 
the  Vicarage  to  one  of  their  Prebendaries,  John  Wyvell/ 
who  had  been  a  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford.  He 
also  held  the  Rectory  of  Frindsbury,  to  which  he  had  been 
presented  by  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  (Dr.  Spratt).  He 
died  in  1704,  and  the  vacancy  was  filled  up  by  one  of  those 
Chapter  arrangements  which  were  not  uncommon  in  those 
days. 

The  Archdeaconry  of  Rochester  was  in  the  gift  of  the 
Bishop,  and  had  fallen  vacant  in  that  year,  and  being  in 
the  Bishop's  gift,  had  been  conferred  on  his  son,  Thomas, 
who  had  only  taken  his  degree  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
three  years  before.  Being  now  Archdeacon,  he,  as  one  of 
the  Rochester  Chapter,  elected,  and  was  presented  to,  the 
valuable  Living  of  Boxley,  which  the  death  of  Wyvell  had 
vacated.-  As  Archdeacon  and  Canon,  residence  at  Boxley 
was  of  course  impossible,  so  Dr.  Spratt  appointed  a  Curate 
in  the  person  of  John  Gyles,  B.D.,  a  Fellow  of  St.  John's 
College,  Oxford.  But  he  clearly  recognized  the  claims  of 
the  Vicarage,  though  not  occupying  it,  for  he  obtained 
permission-^  to  pull  down  the  old  house  and  built  the 
present  one.  He  also,  as  he  has  placed  on  record  in  the 
Parish  Register,  made  substantial  addition  to  the  Vicarage 

^  Abp.  Tillotson's  Register,  51. 

^  Abp.  Teuison's  Register,  i.,  f.  220. 

*  Abp.  Tenison's  Register,  ii.,  289. 


96  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

grounds  and  presented  to  the  Churcli  the  large  gilt  Cup 
for  the  Holy  Communion.^ 

On  his  deaths  in  1720,  he  was  succeeded  by  Edmund 
Barrell/  of  Brazenose  College,  Oxford,  one  of  whose 
first  acts  as  Yicar  was  to  alter  an  arrangement  forced  on 
the  Parish  by  his  predecessor  in  the  last  year  of  his  life, 
by  which  he  raised  the  scale  of  tithes  on  hops  from  10s. 
an  acre  to  18s.  This  Mr.  Barrell  reduced  to  10s.  6d.  To 
him,  too,  the  Parish  is  largely  indebted  for  important 
additions  to  the  Parish  Notes  in  the  small  MS.  Vol.  from 
which  much  of  this  information  is  derived. 

He  seems,  however,  to  have  resided  very  little  in  the 
Vicarage,  for  his  name  does  not  occur  among  the 
''  Domestic  Events,"  or  in  the  Registers  during  the  45 
years  of  his  incumbency. 

He  was  succeeded  in  1765  by  a  far  more  distinguished 
man — Dr.  William  Maekham,  but  with  him  and  his 
immediate  successors  the  non-resident  Vicar  is  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception,  the  penalty  the  Parish  paid 
for  having  the  honour  of  Royal  nominees  for  the  Vicarage. 

Dr.  William  Markham  was  from  the  commencement  of 
his  University  career  a  man  singled  out  for  high  pre- 
ferment. From  Westminster  he  had  gone  up  as  a  King^s 
Scholar  to  Christ  Church,  where  he  rose  to  be  eventually 
Dean,  having  meanwhile  been  Head  Master  of  his  old 
School,  in  1753;  then  Prebendary  of  Durham  in  1759; 
Dean  of  Rochester  in  1765,  and,  like  his  predecessor. 
Archdeacon  Spratt,  in  the  same  year  he  became  Vicar 
of  Boxley.      He  was  appointed  Chaplain  to  George  II.  and 

1  This  cup  has  long  since  disappeared,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  given 
in  exchange  for  the  existing  Cup,  Flagon  and  Patin,  which,  according  to 
the  Hall  Marks,  are  of  the  year  1788,  '89. — Arckccologia  Cantiana,  xvii.,  299. 

-  Abp.  Wake's  Register,  i.,  f.  313.  b. 


THE   CLERGY.  97 

III.,  and  Bishop  of  Chester  in  1771,  and  the  year  after 
was  selected  as  Preceptor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  in  177G  was  raised  to  the  Archbishopric 
of  York.  All  this  while  Boxley  saw  but  little,  if  anything, 
of  him,  though  he  retained  the  Vicarage  in  commendam 
till  he  was  made  Archbishop.  He  died  in  1807,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  89.^ 

On  his  resigning  Boxley  the  right  of  presentation  lay 
again  with  the  Crown,  and  the  Honble.  Beownlow  North, 
the  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of  Guildford,  and  brother 
of  Lord  North,  the  Prime  Minister,  was  selected  for  the 
Vicarage.  He  had  been  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  where 
he  took  his  degree  in  1762,  was  elected  Fellow  of  All 
Souls'  four  years  after,  and  in  1770  was  appointed  to  a 
Canonry  at  Christ  Church.  The  same  year  he  was  made 
Dean  of  Canterbury,  and  the  next  year,  being  only  just  30 
years  old.  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry ;  then,  in 
1774,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  and  of  Winchester  in  1784. 
He  retained  the  Boxley  Vicarage,  and  also  the  still  more 
valuable  Rectory  of  Lydd,  in  Romney  Marsh,  m  com- 
mendiim,  till  he  became  Bishop  of  Worcester."  His 
resignation,  in  1774,  again  threw  the  next  presentation  of 
Boxley  into  the  hands  of  the  Crown. 

To  fill  the  vacancy  thus  created,  William  Nance,  of 
Peter  House,  Cambridge,  was  appointed.  With  him 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  break  in  the  line  of  absentee 
Vicars  for  a  few  years.  In  1780  he  eifected  an  exchange 
with  Dr.  John  Benson,  who  was  Rector  of  G-reat  Chart  and 
Harbledown,  and  also  Prebendary  of  Canterbury.  He  died 
in  1804,  and  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Samuel  Goodenough. 

^  'Nichols'  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  ISth  Century,  vii.,  36. 
-  Ibid,  vol.  ix.,  p.  668. 
H 


98  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

Before  entering  on  the  succession  of  Vicars  of  the  19th 
Century,  it  may  lie  well  to  notice  how  the  ministrations  of 
the  Parish  were  carried  on  during  the  Pluralist  non- 
resident period  we  have  been  traversing.  From  the 
Lambeth  Registers  and  those  of  the  Parish  we  are  able  to 
give  the  names  of  the  Curates  in  the  following  order  : — 
Henry  Burvill,  probably  a  member  of  the  family  of  that 
name  then  living  at  the  Boxley  House,  was  Curate  from 
1705  to  1709  ;  he  was  followed  by  John  Gyles,  B.D.,  a 
Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  from  1709  to  1726 
after  him,  for  a  few  months  only,  by  Thomas  Fades,  LL.B 
of  St.  Edmund's  Hall,  and  then  for  some  two  years,  by 
John  Marriott,  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge  ;  by  Peter 
Alston,  of  New  College,  Oxford,  from  1730  to  1735;  by 
Christopher  Thomas,  from  1741  to  1756;  and  George 
Burville  from  1757  to  1775. 

In  1781  Robert  Parsons  was  appointed  Curate,  and 
remained  till  1787  ;  then  John  Lloyd  till  1802  ;  John  Say, 
and  then  Henry  Morgan  Say,  of  St.  Mary  Hall,  till  1805, 
and  Joseph  Sharpe  till  1809,  when  he  exchanged  for  that 
of  Detling,  of  which  Parish  he  became  Vicar  in  1822. 

To  return  to  the  Vicars,  the  19th  Century  found  Dr. 
Benson  at  the  Vicarage,  but  on  his  death  in  1804,  he  was 
succeeded  by  Dr.  Samuel  Goodenough,  a  distinguished 
Student  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  where  he  took  his 
Degree  in  1764,  and  D.C.L.  in  1772.  He  was  promoted 
to  the  Deanery  of  Rochester  in  1802,  and  two  years  after 
was  presented  by  the  Chapter  to  the  Vicarage  of  Boxley, 
which  he  only  held  for  four  years,  being  appointed  to  the 
Bishopric  of  Carlisle  in  1808.^ 

The   presentation  to  the   Vicarage,  thus  vacated,  again 

^  Nichols'  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  ISth  Century,  vol.  ix.,  p.  759. 


THE    CLEKGY.  99 

falling  to  the  Crown,  Dr.  Richard  Cockburn  was  then 
appointed.  Of  him  little  is  known  save  that  he  was  a 
Canon  of  Winchester,  and  also  befriended  the  living  of 
Boxley  by  the  addition  of  a  considerable  piece  of 
Augmentation  land.  He  held  the  Vicarage  till  his  death 
in  1832,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  John  Griffith. 
He  had  been  a  Fellow  of  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge,  and 
came  under  the  favourable  notice  of  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
who  made  him  one  of  his  Chaplains;  in  1827  he  obtained 
for  him  a  Canonry  at  Rochester.  In  1831  he  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Chapter  living  of  Aylesford,  and  the  following 
year  vacated  that  for  the  Vicarage  of  Boxley,  which  he 
held  till  1853.  After  leaving  Boxley,  his  interest  and  that 
of  Mrs.  Griffith  would  seem  to  have  specially  centered  in 
the  Parish  of  Strood,  adjoining  Rochester,  where,  mainly 
through  their  munificence,  the  new  Church  dedicated  to 
St.  Mary,  was  erected.     It  was  consecrated  in  1869. 

On  his  resignation  of  Boxley,  in  1853,  the  Rev.  Frederick 
Jonathan  Richards,  the  present  Vicar,  was  appointed. 

The  large  increase  in  the  size  of  the  Parish  during  the 
present  Century  rendered  the  help  of  Curates,  even  under 
resident  Vicars,  an  absolute  necessity.  Without  giving 
the  names  of  the  many  who  have  been  thus  connected 
with  the  Parish,  one  demands  special  notice.  Under  Dr. 
Griffith  for  several  years  the  Curacy  was  held  by  one  who 
rose  to  eminence  in  the  Ecclesiastical  word  :  James  Craigie 
Robertson,  who  was  for  many  years  a  Canon  of  Canterbury, 
and  also  filled  the  distinguished  post  of  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  in  King's  College,  London.  He  is 
still  more  widely  remembered  as  the  author  of  a  very  able 
and  valuable  "History  of  the  English  Church." 


100  HISTORY  OF  BOXLEY. 

From  the  list  of  the  Vicars  we  pass  on,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  to  the  sources  of  the  income.  It  has  been  said 
that  it  was  originally  a  Rectory,^  and  subsequently  a 
Yicarage.  Each  had  its  separate  endowment  of  land. 
The  Terriers  of  both  the  Rectorial  (or  Parsonage)  lands 
and  those  of  the  Vicarage  are  still  preserved  in  the 
Diocesan  Registry  at  Canterbury/  and  in  many  instances 
the  names  by  which  they  were  described  three  hundred 
years  ago  are  still  attached  to  sevei-al  of  the  plots. 

From  the  Church  Register,  and  a  Church  Memorandum 
Book,  we  learn  some  interesting  facts ;  for  instance,  that 
flax^  was  one  of  the  products  of  the  Parish,  and  was 
titheable,  and  also  that  one  farm  on  the  hillside  (the 
Warren)  was  charged  with  a  specified  number  of  rabbits 
to  be  supplied  yearly,  or  their  equivalent.* 

To  the  Vicarage  is  also  attached  a  Pension  of  £8  a  year. 
The  actual  assignment  of  it  is  obscure,  but  its  existence 
is  recognized  in  Pope  Boniface's  "  Taxatio"  of  1299,^  and  it 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  perpetual  charge  on  the 
Abbey,  for  when  a  lease  of  Rectorial  land  was  granted  to 
the  Abbey  in  1513,  an  express  stipulation  was  made  that 
the  rent  of  such  land  was  to  be  quite  independent  of  this 

^  See  page  83. 

^  They  will  be  found  in  Appendix  J. 

'  In  1703  there  were  20  acres  of  flax  grown  in  the  Parish. 

*  In  the  small  Volume  of  Parish  Memoranda  already  mentioned  is  an 
entry  as  follows,  respecting  Tithes  paid  by  Robert  Week,  of  Boxley  Warren, 
in  1721  :  "  More,  12  young  well-grown  rabbits,  8  in  Summer  and  4  at 
Christmas;"  and  so  in  subsequent  years,  the  entry  varying,  "all  had  in 
kind,"  or  "had,  or  allowed  for." 

^  Taxatio,  &c.,  &u.,  "  de  Boxele,  xxxii.,  li.  ;  preter  portionem  Vicarii 
ejusdein  Ecclesice,  vL.:  viii.  li." 


THE   CLERGY.  101 

Pension.^  Nor  did  it  cease  with  the  Dissolution  of  the 
Abbey,  but  was  transferred  as  a  charge  on  the  Exchequer, 
from  whence  it  was  long  paid  to  successive  Yicars,  and 
is  now  received  through  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners.^ 

In  Boxley,  as  in  other  Parishes  where  Cistercian 
Monasteries  existed,  it  was  enacted  at  an  early  date  that 
all  lands  under  culture  by  the  Monks  themselves,  or  at 
their  expense,  should  be  tithe-free. 

But  such  was  not  always  the  case  here.  There  clearly 
wsa  a  time  when  this  Abbey  was  as  liable  to  the  payment 
of  tithes  as  other  lands.  Ecclesia  non  solvit  ecclesice,  "  the 
Church  does  not  pay  to  the  Church,"  is  undoubtedly  a 
very  ancient  maxim  in  English  law ;  yet  the  claim  of 
the  Religious  Houses  to  be  independent  of  the  Church, 
and  only  amenable  to  Rome,  would  seem  to  have  removed 
them  from  its  general  application  ;  and  they  paid,  until 
some  special  enactment  gave  them  exemption.  Such 
exemption  can  be  traced  in  the  case  of  Boxley. 

Early  in  the  12th  Century  Pope  Pascal  II.  issued  an 
Edict  that  all  Religious  Houses  should  be  free  of  tithes, 
but  Adrian  IV.  restricted  this  privilege  to  the  Templars, 
Hospitalers  and  Cistercians ;  probably,  in  this  exemption, 

1  Firma  Rectorias  de  Boxley  sic  dimissa  Abbati  de  Boxley,  ut  ille  Abbas 
debet  solvere  ex  suis  propriis  denariis,  ultra  didam  firmam  quolibet  anno 
Vicario  Ecclesice  ibidem,  viii.,  li.     (Dated  1513.) 

-  In  the  M3S.  Book  at  the  Vicarage,  already  referred  to,  is  an  amusing 
entry  made  by  Mr.  Wyvell,  the  Vicar  in  1703,  respecting  this  Pension  : 
"There  is  Belonging  to  The  Vicaridge  of  Boxly  one  Pencion  of  £8,  payd 
yearly  at  Michaelmas,  out  of  the  Exchequer  ;  if  the  Minister  goes  himeselfe 
he  pays  8s.  to  the  Receiver,  4s.  to  the  Auditour,  and  so  receives  clear  £7  8s., 
but  Mr.  Line(?  Lynde),  my  Immediate  Predecessour,  notgoeingup  himeselfe, 
Imployed  one  Mr.  Morgan,  near  the  West  end  of  Westminster,  who  generally 
solicited  that  being  well  for  him,  &  he  received  the  8s.,  soe  he  Received  but 
clear  £7."  So  it  appears  did  Mr.  Wy veil's  successor,  Archdeacon  Spratt : 
but  Mr.  Barrell,  who  followed  him,  appends  a  note  :  "I,  E.  B.,  received  the 
Pension  myeself." 


102  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

adapting  himself  to  the  Crusading  ardour  of  the  times  in 
the  first  two,  and  recognising  the  value  of  the  agricultural 
labours  of  the  third.  However,  in  the  Lateran  Council 
(1215)  this  exemption  was  restricted  to  such  lands  as  the 
Monks  '^were  holding  in  their  own  hands."  But  the 
Cistercians  made  a  vigorous  effort  to  have  this  restriction 
cancelled,  and  would  seem  to  have  assumed  that  it  would 
be,  and  that  they  might  so  act  on  it,  for  a  complaint  had 
been  made  by  the  Parochial  Clergy  of  Boxley  that  the 
Abbey  withheld  and  refused  to  pay  them  tithes.  In  conse- 
quence. Pope  Alexander  III.,  in  a  letter^  addressed  to 
Thomas  a  Becket,  insists  on  the  duty  of  the  Monastery  to 
pay  tithes  in  full  for  all  lands  in  their  hands. 

This,  however,  was  soon  changed  when  Innocent  III. 
came  to  the  Papacy.  In  his  desire  to  fortif}^  these 
outposts  of  the  ecclesiastical  army  of  Rome,  this 
ambitioas  and  haughty  "  Servant  of  servants  of  God," 
as  he  styled  himself,  to  secure  the  more  willing  allegiance 
of  the  English  Monasteries  in  his  struggle  with  the  Crown, 
relieved  all  Cistercian  Abbeys  of  the  obligation  to  pay 
Tithes.  Honorius  III.,  the  successor  of  Innocent,  con- 
firmed this  privilege,  and  Richard  of  Wendover,  at  the 
time  Bishop  of  Rochester,  by  express  mandate,  applied 
this  privilege  to  Boxley.-  It  remained  unquestioned  from 
that  time  (1222)  till  the  Dissolution  of  the  Monasteries, 
when  Henry  VIII.,  in  the  grants  of  the  various  Manors  to 
his  courtiers,  continued  the  same  exemption,  that  so  long 
as  they  held  the  lands  '^'in  their  own  hands"  they  should 

^  The  letter  is  undated,  but  must  have  been  written  between  1160,  when 
Alexander  became  Pope,  and  1170,  when  Becket  Mas  murdered. — 
See  Appendix  K. 

-  See  Appendix  L. 


THE   CLERGY.  103 

''  enjoy  them  discharged  and  acquitted  of  payment  of 
Tithes  as  freely  and  in  as  large  and  ample  a  manner  as  the 
former  Abbots,  &c.,  ever  held  them."  This  privilege, 
under  the  same  conditions,  holds  good  to  this  day  at 
Boxley. 

From  the  list  of  the  Vicars  and  the  sources  of  the 
Yicarial  income,  the  transition  to  the  Vicarage  house  is 
natural.  Here  the  value  of  a  Parish  Register  appears  in  a 
new  light.  It  is  not  only  the  Chronicle  of  "■  Domestic 
Events"  of  a  Parish,  but  often  contains  on  its  fly-pages 
chance  notes  and  Memoranda  of  considerable  interest, 
inserted  by  successive  Vicars  in  days  when  elaborate 
"Minutes  of  Vestries"  were  not  yet  known.  Thus  have 
been  often  rescued  from  oblivion  particular  details  of  the 
past  history  of  a  Parish  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
inevitably  lost.     Such  is  happily  the  case  here. 

By  the  help  of  such  Memoranda  we  can  trace  the 
various  changes  which  have  passed  over  the  Vicarage 
House,  illustrating,  as  they  do,  in  a  most  interesting 
manner  the  changes  which  have  come  over  the  domestic 
and  social  life  of  the  Clergy.  Here  we  have  some  idea 
of  what  the  original  building  was, — when  it  was  pulled 
down  and  a  new  one,  the  nucleus  of  the  present  one, 
erected, — and  then  the  several  stages  of  its  growth  into 
its  modernized  form. 

It  has  been  already  said  that  it  ceased  to  be  a  Eectory 
about  the  year  1377,  and  was  then  constituted  a  Vicarage- 
But  there  was  clearly  no  house  for  the  Vicar  till  1394, 
nearly  20  years  after,  when  the  Prior  and  Convent  of  St. 
Andrew's,  Rochester,  as  the  patrons  ■  of  the  living,  built 
one,  which  we   are   told  consisted  of   "  a  Hall,  Chamber, 


104  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Cellar,  Kitclien,  and  Stable,"  with  a  small  garden- 
plot.  It  was,  however,  stipulated  that  the  future  repairs 
of  this  humble  domicile  should  be  borne  by  successive 
Yicars.^ 

Whatever  the  changes  were  made  during  the  next  three 
centuries  do  not  seem  to  be  recorded.  When,  however, 
Mr.  Wyvill  came  to  the  Vicarage,  in  1690,  he  has  entered 
a  note  that  he  found  the  house  consisting  of  ''  a  good 
parlour,  and  a  place  to  set  the  strong  beer  in,  one  kitchin 
and  another  little  room  for  small  beer,  a  closet,  a  very 
good  wash-house,  and  brewhouse  ;  above  stairs  one  good 
lodging  room,  with  two  little  rooms  within,  one  great  room 
and  closet,  and  another  large  room," — by  no  means  exces- 
sive accommodation  for  a  married  man,  with,  as  the 
Eegister  discloses,  a  rapidly  increasing  family. 

When  Archdeacon  Spratt  succeeded  Mr.  Wyvill,  in 
1705,  he,  though  apparently  non-resident,  recognised  the 
duty  of  providing  for  the  comforts  of  his  Curate,  and  in 
1710  "pulled  down  all  the  old  buildings,  which  he  rebuilt 
of  brick,  with  two  wings,"  and  what  with  "  wainscotting, 
painting,  marble  inside,"  and  ornamental  w-ork  too, 
outside,  introducing  into  the  grounds  "  canals,  cascades, 
and  basin,"  on  land  which  he  had  himself  added  to  the 
garden,  he  claims  the  credit  of  having  expended  out  of  his 
own  pocket  not  less  than  £1,500. 

Still  his  successor  found  something  left  for  him  to  do, 
for  he  added  "  a  wash-house  and  barn."  Then  came  Dr. 
Markham,  in  1765,  and  he  built  "the  Hall  and  the  rooms 
over,  and  made  the  bow-window  to  the  Great  Parlour." 
The  next  Vicar,  Mr.  Nance,  "built  the  brewhouse,  the  Coal 
place  and  small  Cellar,  and  put  up   the  marble  Chimney 

1  Cott.  MSS.     Faustina,  C.  5,  f,  90. 


THE   CLERGY.  105 

Pieces  in  tlie  Great  Parlour^  and  the  Drawing'-room,"  at  a 
cost  of  £500. 

So  tlie  Vicarage  would  seem  to  have  remained  during 
the  incumbencies  of  the  next  two,  also  non-resident, 
Vicars,  Benson  and  Goodenough,  from  1789  to  1808. 

When  Dr.  Cockburn  came  into  residence  he  at  once 
added  "  bay-windows  to  the  Dining-room  and  Drawing- 
room  over  it,^'  besides  making  considerable  additions  to 
the  Glebe.  After  him  Dr.  Griffith  pulled  down  the  old 
stables  and  built  new  ones,  and  also  the  Coach-house,  on 
land  he  purchased  of  Sir  William  Geary,  who  then  owned 
the  adjoining  estate,  called  "  Court  Lodge,"  now  added  by 
Major  Best  to  the  Park  House  property. 

To  his  successor,  the  Rev.  Frederick  Jonathan  Richards, 
the  present  Vicar,  the  Vicarage  is  indebted  for  still 
further  improvements  in  the  house  itself,  besides  an 
important  addition  of  land.  By  throwing  together  two 
small  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  he  has  made  a  bright 
cheery  drawing-room,  and  purchased  from  the  Eccle- 
siastical Commissioners  an  adjoining  piece  of  land,  formerly 
belonging  to  the  Rectory,  with  a  building  traditionally 
called  the  Refectory,  but  more  probably  the  old  Tithe- 
barn;  and  adjoining  it,  the  Farm-house  of  the  Rectorial 
lands,  now  converted  into  two  comfortable  cottages. 

Thus  has  grown  by  degrees,  out  of  the  humble  two- 
roomed  domicile  of  the  medieval  celibate  priest,  the 
commonious  dwelling-house  of  the  modern  family-man 
Vicar,  the  type  of  an  English  home,  the  centre  of  the 
energizing  activity  of  an  English  Parish. 


CHAPTER  YI. 
THE     CHURCH. 

THE  absence  of  all  mention  of  a  Cliurcli  at  Boxley 
in  "  Domesday "  does  not  necessarily  imply  that 
none  then  existed,  for,  as  de  Gray  Birch^  says,  this  book 
"  is  not  a  Survey  of  the  condition  or  statistics  of  Church 
property  or  edifices,  but  only  of  those  places  to  which  the 
Crown  had  to  look  for  a  payment  of  some  kind,  either 
in  services,  rents,  or  produce,  therefore  those  Churches 
only  find  a  place  which  incidentally  fall  into  this 
category."^  Boxley  clearly  did  not,  and  therefore  only 
that  which  belonged  to  or  affected  the  Manor  was 
recorded ;.  and  the  Church,  which  was  evidently  at  that 
time  in  the  hands  of  the  Crown,  was  passed  over  in 
silence,  as  being  distinct  from  the  Manor,  which  was  in 
those  of  Odo. 

Its  value,  as  given  in  '^ Domesday,"  i.e.  £55,  is  presump- 
tive evidence  that  one  so  important  must  have  contained  a 

^  "Domesday  Book,"  p.  255. 

*  Matthew  Paris  (Watts),  p.  10,  thus  explains  the  object  and  system  of 
this  unique  record  ;  "  Rex  Willielmus  misit  justitiarios  per  omnes  Angliae 
Comitatus,  et  inquirere  fecit  quot  agri  vel  jugera  terras  uni  aratro  sufEcerent 
per  annum  in  singulis  villis,  et  quot  animalia  possent  sufEcere  ad  unius 
hydae  culturam.  Fecit  etiam  inquiri  quem  censum  urbes,  castella,  villse,  vici, 
flumina,  pahides,  sylvse,  redderent  per  annum,  et  quot  milites  essent,  in  uni- 
quoque  Comitatu  regni.  Quae  omnia  in  scriptum  redacta,  et  ad  "West- 
monasterium  delata,  in  thesauris  Regum  usque  hodie  reservantur." 


THE   CHURCH.  107 

Church  in  the  days  of  the  Conqueror,  Of  any  such 
building  as  may  have  then  existed  not  a  vestige  now 
remains.  Nor  can  any  part  of  the  present  fabric  claim  to 
date  back  within  150  years  of  that  time. 

The  first  mention  of  a  Church  here  occurs  in  the  Grant 
of  the  Tithes  made  to  it  by  Henry  I.^ 

Could  we  carry  back  our  minds  even  to  the  days  of  the 
Plantagenets,  the  Church  that  would  present  itself  to  our 
imagination  would  be  in  its  internal  arrangements  very 
diiferent  from  that  we  now  have  to  describe.  Its  highly 
picturesque  situation  was  probably  always  the  same  ;  for 
ground  once  consecrated  to  religious  use,  whether  by 
Saxon  or  Norman,  was  in  those  days  very  rarely,  and  only 
then  for  some  good  and  weighty  reason,  deprived  of  its 
sacred  character  and  use.  Here  no  such  reason  was 
likely  to  have  arisen,  and  therefore  the  site  has  doubtless 
remained  the  same. 

But  it  is  within,  that  the  change  has  taken  place.     And 

by  the  aid  of  the  Wills  of  devout  and  liberal  parishioners 

of   the    15th    and    16th    Centui'ies    we   are  able,   to  some 

extent,  to  revive  the  scene.     Their  legacies,  deluded  and 

misguided  as  we  now  regard   them,  give  us  glimpses  of 

the  leading  features   of  the   building,  and   show   how,  in 

accordance  with  the  superstition  of  the  times,  they  sought 

to  add  to  the  embellishment  of  the  Church  they  loved  so 

dearly.  ~ 

^  Nobilissimus  Rex  Henrieus  Primus  multa  bona  contulit,  scilicet  ecclesias 
de  Boxele,  k.c.,"  E.  Eegistro  Temp.  Episcop.  Roffcnslum,  quoted  in  Thorpe's 
Kegistrum  Roffcnsi,  p.  2. 

^-Tho  Will  of  "Johanna  Bushe,  widow  of  Johannes  Bushe,  of  Boxley  " 
(Consistory  Court,  Canterbury,  v.,  59,  b  ),  dated  1499,  may  be  taken  as  a 
typical  one:  "In  primis  do  ot  lego  animam  meam  DeO  Omnipotenti,  S'te 
Marie,  et  omnibus  Sanctis  cell  ;  corpusque  mourn  sepeliendum  in  cimiterio 
ecclesie  parochialis  omnium  S'torum  de  Boxle,  Item  lego  summo  altari  ibidem 


108  HISTORY   OF   BOXLET. 

At  the  East  end  then  would  have  stood  the  High  Altar, 
always  the  first  to  be  remembered  in  each  Will  with  the 
stereotyped  form  of  "  Conscience  Money/'  for  Tithes 
neglected  or  wilfully  withheld.  The  next  to  be  honoured 
would  be  the  "  Summa  Crux/'  the  Rood  over  the  Chancel 
Screen,  for  which  lights  were  always  bequeathed ;  then 
lights  for  the  "  Image  of  the  Virgin  Mary/'  probably  in 
her  own  Chapel/  now  forming  the  East  end  of  the  South 
Aisle,  where  the  piscina  is  still  visible  in  the  South  wall ; 
lights  also  for  the  "Images"  of  St.  James,  St.  Laurence, 
and  St.  Christoper;-  then  towards  the  later  part  of  the 
15th  Century  other  claimants  for  illumination  appeared. 
In  1474  and  1480  lights  were  bequeathed  to  the  "Vision 
of  Pope  Gregory,'^  and  in  1489  to  the  "Image  of  the 
Passion."'*  But  where  these  several  objects  had  their 
places  it  is  now  impossible  to  conjecture ;  nor  is  it  possible 
to  say  whose  Chapel  occupied  the  East  end  of  the  North 
Aisle,  where  is  also  a  piscina  now  let  into  the  East  wall. 

It  is  however  with  the  present  Church  that  we  are  con- 
cerned, and  with  the  building  as  it  now  appears,  for  High 
Altar,  Rood-screen,  side  Altars,  and  Images  have  happily 
disappeared,  to  give  place  to  a  more  simple  style  of  adorn- 
ment, better  suited  to  the  simpler  and  less  sensuous — the 

pro  decimis  et  oblacionibus  negligenter  oblitis  et  subtractis  XII.  d.     Item 

lego  lumen   beate    Marie    Virgiui Item  lumen    S'to.    Cruci  ibidem, 

Item  lego   lumen  S'to  Jacobo  ibidem Item  S'to   Johanni   Baptists 

ibidem.     Item  S'to  Laurencio,  &c. 

^  The  Chapel  of  St.  Maiy  is  expressly  mentioned  by  John  Beche  (1462), 
Archd.  Court,  Cant.,  i.,  5.,  by  John  Clynton  (1473),  Ibid.,  ii.,  13,  by  Robert 
Burbage  (1479).     Ibid.,  iii.,  15. 

^  "A  lightto  St.  Christopher,"by  Thomas  Doore  (1464),  Archd.  Court,  i.,  8. 
^  "  Visioni  S'ti  Gregorii,"  bequeathed   by   Robert  Jay  (1474),  Archdeac. 
Court,  Cant.,  ii.,  14,  by  Joanna  Baker  (1480).    Ibid.,  iii.,  21. 

*  "Passionis  Imagini,"  bequeathed  by  Thomas  Boor  (1489).    Ibid.,  vii.,  9. 


THE   CHURCH.  109 

more  real  and  devout — form  of  worship  of  the  English 
Liturgy. 

On  entering  the  Church  by  the  West  door,  and  passing 
through  a  singular  porch  or  chamber  outside  the  Tower  (of 
which  fuller  notice  will  be  given  presently)  the  eye  is 
greeted  by  a  spacious,  light,  Avell-proportioned  building,  of 
the  early  part  of  the  13th  Century.  The  pillars  of  the 
Nave  are  of  the  graceful  Early-English  character,  con- 
stituting the  oldest  portion  of  the  Church,^  while  the 
windows  of  the  West  end,  and  those  of  the  South  Aisle, 
would  seem  to  have  been  insertions  of  a  hundred  years 
later,  those  of  the  North  Aisle  belonging  rather  to  the 
middle  of  the  15th  Century,  at  which  period  the  battle- 
mented  parapets  of  both  Aisles  must  have  been  added, 
while  the  gables  of  both  Nave  and  Aisles  clearly  date 
from  the  early  part  of  the  preceding  Century. 

The  only  relics  of  the  past  are  the  two  pixcince  already 
mentioned,  and  the  hjcli)ioscupe,  the  aperture  cut  through 
the  South  pier  of  the  Chancel  arch,  to  allow  the  attendant 
to  see  if  the  lights  on  the  High  Altar  were  burning ;  but 
even  this  has  under  modern  ''restorations  "  been  partially 
closed  up,  to  complete  the  round  of  the  pillar  !  There  is 
also  a  very  early  narrow  doorway  in  the  eastern  end  of  the 
North  wall,  which  must  have  led  by  a  spiral  stair  to  the 
Rood-loft,  spanning  that  Aisle  :  and  a  plain  capacious 
stoup  for  holy  water  on  the  right  hand  inside  the  South 
door. 

Of  the  Tower,  so  conspicuous  an  object  in  the  landscape, 

^  In  the  course  of  a  "  Restoration"  some  years  since,  the  foundations  of  an 
outer  wall  were  found  in  the  line  of  these  pillars,  showing  that  an  earlier 
Church  existed  here,  and  that  it  comprised  what  now  forms  the  Nave. — 
Notes  about  Boxlcj. 


110  HISTORY   OF    BOXLEY. 

its  battlemented  parapet,  like  that  of  tlie  Aisles,  indicates 
15tli  Century  work,  but  a  careful  examination  of  the  lower 
stage  reveals  marks  of  being  at  least  a  hundred  years 
older.  The  entrance  doorway  on  the  West,  now  somewhat 
blocked  up  by  a  heavy  bulkhead,  as  a  barrier  against  the 
draught,  is  a  striking  specimen  of  decorated  w^ork,  with  its 
graceful  mouldings  and  carved  corbel  ends — the  heads  of 
a  King  and  a  Bishop.  The  Crown  of  four  large  and  four 
small  strawberrry  leaves,  as  represented  in  the  effigy  of 
Edward  II.  at  Gloucester,  seems  to  suggest  the  possibility 
of  this  ornament  having  been  introduced  to  commemorate 
the  visit  of  that  Monarch  to  Boxley  in  1321,^  the  corre- 
sponding figure  being  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  of 
that  day  (Haimo  de  Hitha,  or  de  Heath),  who  was,  con- 
jointly with  the  Prior  and  Convent  of  St.  Andrew's,  the 
Patron  of  the  Boxley  Vicarage.  This  would  tally  with 
the  probable  date  of  this  lower  portion  of  the  Tower, 
The  door  itself,  too,  is  a  fine  piece  of  early  wood-work,  and 
has  been  well  preserved. - 

But  what  constitutes  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  the  Church  is  the  Western  Porch,  sometimes 
erroneously  called  the  "  Gralilee  "  Chamber,  through  which 
ingress  is  gained  to  the  Western  door.  Its  object  and  use 
have  long  perplexed  Antiquaries.  It  was  evidently  an 
adjunct  to  the  Church  of  much  later  date  than  the  Tower 
itself,  probably  added  on  for  some  secular  parochial 
purpose — a  room,  it  may  be,  for  parish  meetings  or  guilds.^ 

1  See  page  43. 

-  For  the  architectural  details  of  the  building  the  Author  is  mainly  in- 
debted to  his  friend,  G.  P.  Loftus  Brock,  Esq.,  F.S.  A. 

^  An  interesting  Paper  entitled  "Church  Ales,"  by  E.  Peacock,  F.S. A.,  in 
the  Archaeological  Journal  for  1883  (vol.  xl.),  contains  an  account  of  Church 
Houses,  as  buildings  for  Parochial  uses. 


THE   CHURCH.  Ill 

On  walking  up  the  Cliurch-yarcl  from  tlie  Lytch-gate,  tlie 
eye  at  once  detects  that  neither  door,  nor  window  above, 
in  this  Porch,  is  in  the  centre  of  the  gable  ;  nor  is  the 
gable  itself  true  to  the  lines  of  the  Nave.  The  chamber 
has  been  evidently  enlarged  on  the  South  side,  the  wall 
having  been  built  some  three  feet  outside  its  original  line, 
and  then  carried  inwards  at  an  oblique  angle  to  adjust 
it  to  the  buttress  on  the  South-west  corner  of  the  Tower. 
A  small  doorway  and  a  few  stone  steps  of  a  spiral  stair  in 
the  North  wall  would  perhaps  suggest  that  there  may  have 
been  an  upper  room.  There  are  traces  also  of  windows, 
now  blocked  up,  in  the  two  side  walls.  This  building  has 
long  been  regarded  as  distinct  from,  and  independent  of 
the  Church,  and  is  claimed  as  a  mortuary  Chapel  belonging 
to  Vinter's  estate,  and  as  such  the  vault  beneath  it  has 
been  used  for  burials  by  the  Whatman  family. 

The  connection  of  this  Porch  with  Vinter's  is  thus 
explained  in  an  Inscription  on  a  large  slate  tablet  fixed 
on  the  South  wall  : 

"  This  part  of  Boxley  Church  appears  to  have  been  built, 
and  from  time  to  time  repaired  and  freely  used  by  the 
owners  of  Vinter's,  in  this  parish,  viz.  : 

"  Roger  Vinter,  Cons(ervator)  Pacis,  1343,  who  founded  and 
endowed  with  the  estates  of  Gould's  and  Shepway 
Court ^  the  Chantry,  afterwards  called  Gould's 
Chantry,  Maidstone. 

'^John  Vinter,  1380. 

"  Sir  John  de  Fremyngham,  1409. 

'^Sir  Roger  Isley,  1411. 

"  Sir    Henry    Isley,    who    forfeited    his    estates    for  High 

^  Shepway  Court  was  not  included  in  tho  grant. 


112  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Treason    and    was    executed    after    Sir    Thomas 

Wyatt's  Rebellion. 
"  Sir  Cavaliero  Maycott,  aVs  Mackworth^  1580. 
"  William  Covert,  Esq.,  1610,  who  married  Lady  Barbara 

Cutts,  and  rebuilt  a  part  of  Vinters  in  1582. 
"  Sir  William  Tufton,  Bart.,  1626. 
"  Sir  Charles  Tufton,  Bart.,  1660. 
"  Daniel  Whyte,  Esq.,  1689. 
"Sir  Samuel  Ongley,   1711.     Mr.   Champnies,  of   Boxley, 

was  his  tenant. 
"  James  Whatman,  Esq.,  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  1783.     He 

was  Sheriff  of  Kent  in  1767,  and  used  this  vault 

in  1789   for  the  burial  of  Edward  Stanley,   Esq., 

D.C.L.,  Comm(issione)r  of  the  Customs  in  London. 
"In  1836  his  son,  with  the  Vicar  of  Boxley,  had  the 
opinion  of  Counsel  on  the  free  use  of  it,  and  the  ancient 
Inscriptions  to  its  earlier  possessors  having  been  effaced 
from  it,  this  stone  is  intended  to  preserve  its  history. 
1848."! 

Mention  must  now  be  made  of  the  WINDOWS. 

The  three-light  East  window,  dedicated  to  the  memory 
of  Colonel  James  Best,  represents,  in  the  centre  the 
Crucifixion,  on  one  side  the  Baptism  of  Our  Lord  in  the 
River  Jordan,  and  on  the  other  the  two  Maries  and  the 
Angel  at  the  sepulchre. 

The  two-light  window  on  the  North  side  of  the  Chancel 
represents  "  the  Holy  Family "  in  the  stable,  and  the 
presentation  of  the  child  Jesus  in  the  Temple,  with  this 
Inscription  :  "In  Memoriam,  Gulielmi  Parry  Richards, 
M.A.     Nat.   1789  ;  mort.  1860.     Viri  boni,  patris  optimi, 

^  See  pages  4  aud  5. 


THE   CHUECH.  113 

hoc  monumentum  Filius  amaiis  posuit/'  While  that  in 
the  opposite  window  contains  in  its  two  lights  Our  Lord 
showing  himself  to  Mary,  and  to  Thomas,  with  a  similar 
Inscription,  with  only  the  addition  of  the  fact  that  his  son 
Frederick  J.  Richards  was  at  the  time  the  Vicar  of  the 
Parish. 

In  the  second  two-light  window  on  the  North  side  of 
the  Chancel  are  represented  the  Annunciation,  and  the 
Salutation  of  Elizabeth,  with  the  following  Inscription  : 
"In  Memoriam  Franciscte  Elizee,  nat.  1789;  mort.  1851, 
Gulielmi  Parry  Richards  Uxoris  dilectissise  Hoc  Monu- 
mentum Filia  amans  Posuit." 

In  the  small  single-light  window  on  the  South  side 
of  the  Chancel,  dedicated  to  the  Praise  and  Glory  of 
God,  in  memory  of  Tatton  Brockman,  M.A.,  of  Beach- 
borough,  Clerk  in  Holy  Orders,  born  Dec.  7,  1792,  died 
June  25,  1869,  is  a  representation  of  the  Ascension. 

In  the  Vestry,  behind  the  organ,  is  a  small  two-light 
window  with  the  figures  of  S.  Gabriel  and  S.  Michael, 
symbolizing  Peace  and  War,  presented  by  Major  Mawdistly 
G.  Best,  on  his  safe  return  from  the  Crimean  and  Indian- 
Mutiny  Campaigns  ;  with  the  inscription  on  a  small  brass 
plate,  "  In  Memoriam,  Cawnpore,  Lucknow,  1857-8,  M.  G. 
Best,  34th  Regt.'' 

At  the  East  end  of  the  North  Aisle  is  one  "To  the 
Memory  of  Madeline  Frances,  the  beloved  wife  of  Richard 
Mercer,  Esq.,  "  who  departed  into  everlasting  life  30th 
January,  1862.''  It  represents  the  Transfiguration  scene, 
in  the  centre  light  Our  Lord  in  a  Vesica  Piscis,  radiant 
with  glory,  on  either  side  Moses  and  Elijah  emblematized, 
the  one  by  the  two  tables,  the  other  by  a  raven. 
I 


114  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

In  the  North  Aisle  is  a  representation  of  Our  Lord 
raising  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  with  the  following  Inscrip- 
tion :  "  To  the  Glory  of  God,  and  in  memory  of  her  beloved 
Mother,  Dame  Anna  Brockman,  born  October  1,  1817,  died 
May  14th,  1881  :  and  of  her  two  sisters,  Louisa  Tatton 
Brockman,  born  Jan.  24,  1842,  died  June  17,  1850;  and 
Maria  KnatchbuU-Hugessen,  born  June  27,  1846,  died 
Holy  Innocents'  Day,  1881.  This  window  is  dedicated  by 
Katherine  A.  Best." 

The  East  window  of  the  South  Aisle  is  to  the  memory 
of  several  members  of  the  Lushington  family,  in  which  the 
Scene  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  is  represented,  the 
Saviour  in  agony,  with  S.  Peter  at  his  feet  asleep,  while 
on  his  right  appears  Judas  acting  as  the  guide  to  the 
soldiers,  and  on  his  left  the  other  two  disciples  lying  wrapt 
in  slumber. 

In  the  South  Aisle  is  a  representation,  running  across 
the  two  lights,  of  the  Marriage  Feast  in  Cana  of  Galilee, 
"To  the  Glory  of  God  and  in  memory  of  Dora  Georgina, 
wife  of  Frederick  J.  Richards,  Vicar  of  the  Parish,  born 
May  27,  1827,  passed  into  rest  June  3,  1880." 

In  the  West  window  in  the  North  Aisle  appear  in  the  two 
lights,  the  Miraculous  Draught  of  Fishes,  and  the  Healing 
of  the  impotent  man  at  the  Pool  of  Bethesda.  "Ad 
majorem  Dei  gloriam  et  in  memoriam  Johannis  Griffith, 
S.T.P.,  nati  MDCCLXXXIX.,  denati  MDCCCLXXIX. 
Cathedralis  Ecclesiae  Roffensis  Canonici,  atque  per  tres  et 
viginti  annos  hujusce  Ecclesias  Vicarii,  hoc  monumentum 
tres  amici  posuerunt ;  Frederico  J.  Richards,  Vicario." 

In  the  Western  entrance  Porch  is  a  small  two-light 
window  containing  the  approjDriate  figures  of    S.  Michael 


THE   CHURCH.  115 

and  S.  George,  thus  dedicated:  "To  tlie  Glory  of  God, 
and  in  loving  memory  of  Cliarles  Cornwallis  Ross, 
Lieutenant,  King's  Royal  Rifles,  born  30  August,  1861. 
His  short  Military  career  was  chiefly  spent  in  active 
service  in  the  Soudan.  He  died  at  Ramleh,  from  fever 
contracted  at  Suakim,  7tli  June,  1884,  aged  22." 

Among  the  ornaments  of  the  Church  should  be  specially 
noticed  the  Reredos  of  alabaster,  running  across  the  East 
end,  with  a  colonade  of  Cornish  marble  shafts  supporting 
richly  cusped  canopies,  recessed  in  Derbyshire  marble.  It 
is  relieved  by  bands  of  very  choice  Cornish  marble  mosaic. 

In  Monuments  Boxley  is  not  so  rich  as  some  of  its 
neighbour  Churches.  Indeed,  with  two  exceptions,  to  be 
specially  noticed,  those  that  remain  are  of  comparatively 
recent  date,  and  of  simple  design.  It  would  appear  that 
there  was  a  time  when  it  possessed  many  of  a  richer 
character,  but  these  have  somehow  disappeared. 

The  earliest  record  of  a  burial  here  is  that  of  Hugo  de 
Mortimer/  Archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  in  the  year  1275, 
though  no  monument,  or  even  local  tradition  of  the  event 
remains.  Yet  must  it  have  been  a  memorable  event, 
for  it  was  no  less  a  dignitary  than  the  Prior  of  St. 
Augustine's,  who  had  come  to  perform  the  last  sad  offices 
over  the  corpse  of  his  neighbour  dignitary  of  Canterbury. 

The  earliest  brass  remaining  in  the  Church  is  that  now 
lying  in  the  middle  Aisle,  but  originally  in  its  proper 
place,  the  Chancel.  It  represents  a  Priest  robed,  and  the 
inscription   at   the   foot,   also   happily   preserved,   tells  its 

'  Eodem  anno  (1275)  vii.,  Idus  Octobris,  obiit  Magister  Hugo  de  Mortuo- 
mari,  Arcliidiaconus  de  Cantuaria,  apud  Meidestane,  et  sepultus  est  apud 
Boxele  a  Priore  Cantuariensi.     Gervase,  Gesta  Begum,  (Stubbs),  ii.,  281. 


116  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

tale.  It  once  no  doubt  marked  the  actual  burial  place, 
and  still  commemorates  tlie  name  of,  a  Boxley  Vicar, 
named  William  Snell,^  who  died  in  the  middle  of  tbe  IStli 
Century.  It  runs  thus  :  ''  Decimo  die  Marcii,  Anno 
Gratige  MCCCCLI.,  Magister  Willielmus  Snell,  quondam 
de  Collegio  Animarum  (Omnium)  Oxon,  istius  Ecclesiae 
Vicarius,  ecclesiastice  tradit'  sepultur^e.  Cujus  anima  in 
pace  requiescat." 

The  next,  indeed  the  only  other  left,  is  that  of  a  Soldier, 
which  has  somehow  found  its  way  into  the  Chancel.  The 
stone  in  which  it  is  inserted  originally  contained  the 
figure  of  his  spouse  also,  and  their  coats  of  arms  ;  but  his 
&%.gj,  and  the  inscription  at  the  foot,  is  all  that  remains. 
Here  we  have,  on  a  small  scale,  a  fine  representation  of  an 
Esquire  in  the  plated  armour  in  fashion  during  the  Tudor 
period ;  his  hands  are  raised  in  prayer ;  a  long  sword  hangs 
at  his  left  side,  and  a  dagger  at  his  right ;  his  head  is  bare, 
and  rests  on  a  richly  worked  saddle ;  his  hair  and  beard 
cut  short,  the  ruff,  or  frill  of  the  period  falling  over  the 
stiff  collar.  The  figure  itself  is  in  good  preservation,  and 
also  the  inscription,  save  only  the  surname,  which  is  almost 
undecypherable,  and  only  by  the  aid  of  the  Church 
Register  is  it  possible  to  identify  the  subject. 

The  Inscription  runs  thus  : 

"  Eichard  Tomyow,"  Esquier,  who  maryed  Mary,  one 

1  See  page  88. 

-  Tlie  indistinct  lettering  of  the  Surname  has  proved  an  enigma  to  more 
than  one.  In  a  very  interesting  little  work,  "  Notes  about  Boxley,"  already 
referred  to,  it  is  suggested  that  the  name  was  "Tomlyn,"  while  Barry 
Charles  Roberts,  in  a  book  under  the  same  title,  considers  it  may  have  been 
"Cimyow,"  or  that  the  final  letters  are  certainly  "ow."  The  Church 
Register  solves  the  doubt,  but  raises  an  almost  greater  difficulty,  for  there 
the  entry  is  distinctly  '' Hichardus  Tomyow,  Armiger,  sepuUus  xii.  Junii." 
but  it  seems  well  nigh  impossible  to  connect  the  bearer  of  such  a  name  with 


THE   CHURCH.  117 

of   the    daughters  of    Sir  Matthew    Browne,    of    Bech- 

worth  Castle,  in  the  County  of  Surrey,  Knight,  deceased 

the  xii.  of  June,  1576." 

On  a  separate  brass  are  the  following  verses  : 

' '  Whoe  under  stone  of  marble  here  doth  rest, 
By  derest  friends  remembered  as  you  see, 

Suche  wysdome  sure  did  lodge  within  his  brest, 
And  suche  contempt  of  worldly  things  had  he, 

As  made  him  passe  with  gaine  of  worthy  praise 
The  gayest  course  of  those  his  aged  days. 

' '  A  man  indued  with  vertues  of  the  minde, 
Esteeming  much  the  meyne  and  gayest  state. 

Well  learned  he  was,  to  every  good  inclinde 

With  pacience  great,  colde  broke  eche  other  fate. 

To  Prynce  and  Pere  most  true  in  service  still, 
At  eightie  years  on  him  God  did  his  will." 

The  most  imposing  of  the  mural  monuments  is  that  to 

the  Wiat  family.     It  is  between  the  windows  on  the  North 

wall  of  the  Chancel,  and  has  the  following  Inscription  : — 

"  Edwin  Wiatt,  Serjcant-at-law,  son  and  heire  male  of 

Sir  Francis  Wiat  of  Boxley  Abbey,  and  Margaret,  his 

wife,    was    at    one    time    justice    of    the    peace    of    this 

county,     recorder    of     Canterbury,    and    recorder    and 

burgess  in  parliament  for  the  corporation  of  Maidstone ; 

one  of  the  council  of  the  court  before  the  president  and 

council  in  the  marches  of  Wales,  and  chiefe  justice  of 

the    grand    sessions    for   the    counties    of    Carmarthen, 

Pembroke,  and  Cardigan.     He  married  Frances  second 

daughter    and  coheire    of    Thomas    Crispe,   of    Quex  in 

Thanet,  Esq.,  by  whom  he  had  Thomas  and  other  sons, 

the  family  of  Sir  Slatthew  Browne,  of  Bechworth  Castle,  whose  daughter  he 
is  said  to  have  married.  In  the  College  of  Arms  the  name  of  Mary  does  not 
appear  as  a  daughter  of  Sir  Matthew,  but  only  that  of  Margaret,  and  she  is 
represented  as  having  married  one  Sir  Richard  Tanne.  Thus  is  confusion 
worse  confounded. 


118  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

and  Margaretta  and  other  daugliters,  buried  in  this 
cliancell,  and  liatli  Edwin,  Francis,  and  Richard, 
liveing;  and  erected  this  monument,  1702.  To  the 
memory  of  Sir  Henry  Wiat,  of  Alington  Castle,  knight 
banneret,  descended  of  that  ancient  family,  who  was 
imprisoned  and  tortured  in  the  Tower,  in  the  reign 
of  king  Richard  the  third,  kept  in  the  dungeon, 
where  fed  and  preserved  by  a  cat.  He  married  Ann, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Skinner  Esq.  of  Surry,  was  of 
the  privy  council  to  king  Henry  the  Seventh  and  king 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  left  one  son.  Sir  Thomas  Wiat  of 
Alington  Castle,  who  w^as  esquire  of  the  body  to  king 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  married  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Brooke  lord  Cobham,  and  well  known  for 
learning  and  embassys  in  the  reign  of  that  king.  Sir 
Thomas  Wiat  of  Alington  Castle,  his  only  son,  married 
Jane  youngest  daughter  of  Sir  William  Hawt,  of  this 
county,  and  was  beheaded  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Mary,  leaving  Greorge  Wiat,  his  only  son  who  lived  to 
age,  who  married  Jane,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Finch 
of  Eastwell  and  Katherine  his  wife,  restored  in  blood 
by  act  of  parliament  of  the  13th  of  queen  Elizabeth, 
and  leaving  only  two  daughters,  Anna,  who  married 
Roger  Twisden  of  Royden  Hall  esq.  and  Jane,  who 
married  Thomas  Scot  esq.  George  Wiat  was  succeeded 
by  his  eldest  son  Sir  Francis  Wiat,  twice  governor 
of  Virginia,  and  married  Margaret  daughter  of  Sir 
Samuel  Sandys  of  Ombersley  in  Worcestershire.  George 
Wiat  left  also  Hawt  Wiat,  who  died  vicar  of  this 
parish,  and  hath  issue  liveing  in  Virginia  ;  and  left 
also  Elionora,  married  to  Sir  John  Finch,  baron  of 
Forditch.      Sir  Francis  Wiat  by  his  wife  Margaret,  had 


To  Face  Page  119. 


THE   CHURCH.  119 

issue  the  said  Edwin  Wiat,  and  also  Elizabeth,  who 
married  Thomas  Bosville  of  Little  Mote,  Einsford,  esq. 
and  by  him  hath  Margaretta  his  only  daughter  and 
heire,  who  is  married  to  Sir  Robert  Marsham  of  the 
Mote  in  Maidstone,  knight  and  bain-onet." 

On  this  monument  are  the  following  arms  : 

1.  Parti  per  fesse,  azure  and  gules,  a  barnacle  argent  (Wjat). 

2.  Argent,    three    bars    gules,    and    in    chief  a  greyhound 

courant  sable  (Skipwith). 

3.  Blank. 

4.  Argent,  on  a  chevron  sable,  five  horse-shoes  or  (Crispe). 

5.  Argent,    on    a    chevron    sable,     between    three    hearts 

(garbs  ?)  gules,  as  many  mullets  or. 

6.  Or,  a  cross  engrailed  gules  (Hawte). 
7. 
8. 

In  the  Chancel,  almost  buried  under  the  Choir  Seats, 
are  two  massive  stones,  one  on  the  North  side,  on  which 
the  Arms  only  of  Wiat  are  visible,  and  on  the  other  the 
Crest  of  Grimestone,  projecting  beyond  the  seat.  These 
are  evidently  the  Monuments  mentioned  by  Thorpe  in 
Registrum  Buffense,  page  789,  as  follows  : — 
''M.  S. 
"Of  Edwin  Wiat  Esq.  son  of  Edwin  Wiat,  Sergeant 

at  law  :  he  mar^^ed   Elizabeth  Hales,  second  daughter, 

and  one  of  the  coheirs  of  Edward  Hales   of  Chilton  in 

this  County,  Esq.  and  Elizabeth  his  wife.     He  departed 

this  life,  June  4,  1707.'' 

The  shield  was  thus  given  : 

"Parti  per  fesse  gules  and  azure,  a  barnacle  argent,  for 
Wiat  :  impaling,  Gules,  three  arrows  or,  for  Hales," 


I  Blank. 


120  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"  Hie  jacet  Henricus  Grimestone,  Miles,  Edwardi 
Grimestoue  Armigeri  filius  natu  (aliter  nemini) 
secundus^  propter  pietatem  erga  Deum,  charitatem 
erga  proximum,  pacificus  vixit,  pace  quiescit,  moriens 
dixit  "Resurgam."  Obiit  22  Septembris,  1745. 
^tatis  suae  64/' 

Oil  tlie  monument  is  the  family  shield  : 

"  Argent,  on  a  fesse  sable,  three  mullets  of  six  points  or, 
pierced  gules."  The  crest,  "A.  stag's  head,  ringed, 
argent." 

There  was  also  a  series  of  tombstones  of  the  Mitchell 
family,^  belonging  to  the  latter  part  of  the  17th  Century, 
outside  the  Communion  Rails,  with  the  following 
Inscriptions  (but  they  have  now  disappeared)  : 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Mistress  Jane  Mitchell,  the 
wife  of  Captain  Stephen  Mitchell.  She  departed  this 
life  the  seventh  of  February,  being  forty  one  years, 
leaving  behind  her  three  sons  and  two  daughters,  in 
the  year  1669." 

*'  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Captain  Stephen  Mitchell, 
husband  of  Jane  Mitchell,  of  the  Parish  of  Boxley.  He 
departed  this  life  the  14th  day  of  August,  being  aged 
forty  eight  years,  and  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord  1667." 

"  Here  lieth  the  body  of  Stephen  Mitchell,  the  son  of 

Capt.   Stephen  Mitchell,  late  of  Boxley.     He  departed 

this  life  the  iii.  of  September,  1678." 

On   the    stone    for    Captain    Stephen    Mitchell    was     a 

shield,  bearing  "  A  cross  (?  a  fesse)   between  three  birds' 

heads  impaling  a  greyhound  courant." 

1  Thorpe's  EegisLrum  Roffcnse,  p.  790. 


THE  CHURCH.  121 

The  Champneys  family,  for  many  years  living  at 
Vinter's,  are  also  represented  here  in  a  series  of  monu- 
mental tablets  in  the  North  Aisle. 

"  In  Memory  of 
"  Justinian  Champneys,  of  Gray's  Inn,  Barrister,  only 
son  of  the  Rev.  John  Champneys,  Clerk,  Rector  of 
Tigswell  in  the  County  of  Hertford,  by  Martha  daughter 
of  Sir  Alexander  Cave  Kt.  He  was  born  in  1687  and 
died  unmarried  in  1712." 

"  Saeah,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  Andrew  Hughes, 
of  Ringledon,  in  the  Parish  of  Woodnesborough,  by 
Sarah  daughter  of  Gratian  Lynch  Esq.  of  Groves  in  the 
Parish  of  Staples,  and  wife  of  Justinian  Champneys 
Esq.  of  Ostenhanger  in  this  County.  She  was  born  in 
1679,  married  in  1694,  and  died  in  1728,  leaving  issue 
Justinian,  William,  Henry,  and  Sarah,  the  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Stringer  Belcher,  Clerk,  Rector  of  Ulcomb.'' 

"Justinian  Champneys  Esq.  of  Ostenhanger,  only  son 
of  Richard  Champneys,  Gent,  of  Biddenden,  born  in 
1669,  and  died  in  1754.  He  was  one  of  the  five  gentle- 
men stiled  the  "  Kentish  Petitioners,"  of  whom  we  have 
an  account  in  the  History  of  this  County." 

"Justinian  Champneys,  son  of  the  last  mentioned 
Justinian,  born  in  1695,  died  in  1758,  not  leaving  any 
issue,  and  is  buried  at  Aquelia  in  Piedmont." 

"Henry  Champneys  Esq.,  of  Vinter's  in  this  parish, 
born  in  1700,  died  unmarried  in  1781  :  in  compliance 
with  whose  desire  this  monument  is  erected  to  the 
memory  of  his  father  and  mother,  and  others  of  his 
family  buried  in  this  Church." 


122 


HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 


That  Heaven  may  bless 
two  infant  daughters  she  has  left 
with  like  endowments 
is  the  prayer  of  the  surviving 

parent  ; 
and  that  there  may  be  many  such 
should  be  the  prayer  of  all 
who  are  friends  to  Virtue, 
Lovers  of  their  Country, 
and  well  wishers  to  human  kind. 
One  only  son,  Sackville,  she  left, 
who  followed  her  too  soon. 
She  died  on  the  I7th  day  of  April, 
Aged  forty  three  years. 
He  died  on  the  seventeenth  of 
May,  aged  six  years. 

MDCCXLVIII." 


' '  Near  this  place  is  deposited 
all  that  could  return  to  earth 
of  Hannah,    wife   of  William 

Champneys, 
of  Vinter's  in  this  Parish,  Esq. 
and  daughter  of  John  Trigge 
of  Newnham  in  the  Co.  of 

Gloucester,  Esq. 
And  that  the  memory  of  so  able  a 

person 
may  not  be  buried  with  her  ashes. 
Let  Truth  record. 
Let  Justice  acknowledge, 
that  her  form  was  a  mirrour  to  her 

mind, 
reflecting  those  excellencies, 
which  all  applaud,  few  possess, 
Sense  with  Innocence, 
Mildness  with  Dignity, 
Chearfulness  with  Modesty, 
Piety  without  Affectation, 
and  every  Virtue  joyned  with  every 

Grace, 
that   could   give    lustre    to    the 

character 
of  a  Neighbour,  Friend,  and  Wife 
Mother,  Christian. 


"  Sacred  to  the  Memory 

of  Frances,  eldest  daughter  and  coheiress 

of  William  Champneys,  late  of  Vinters  in  this  parish,  Esq. 

Such  was  the  piety  of  her  mind,  the  goodness  of  her  heart, 

and  the  benevolence  of  her  disposition 

that  her  life  proved  a  blessing, 

her  death  a  heavy  affliction 

to  her  family. 

She  died  the  28th  day  of  February  1800, 

in  the  58th  year  of  her  age." 


THE   CHURCH.  123 

"  Near  this  place  lieth  the  body  of  Ann, 

the  wife  of  Samnel  Athawes,  Senior,  of  this  Parish, 

who  departed  this   life  the  31st   day  of   May,    1753, 

Aged  54  years. 

Left  issue  5  sons  and  3  daug-hters.^' 

"■  Here  also  lieth  the  body  of  Mr.  Samuel  Athawes,  who 

succeeding  his  father  in  the  Parsonage  Farm 

of  this  Parish, 

occupied  the  same  forty  eight  years,  with  uprightness  and 

moderation, 

that  no  dispute  or  contention  arose  in  his  time, 

and  the  Tithes  were  as  willingly  paid  by  the  Parishioners 

as  received  b}'  himself.^ 

He  lived  respected  by  his  friends  for  his  integrity  and 

generosity, 

and  beloved  by  the  Poor  for  his  Benevolence  and 

Compassion, 

and  died  lamented  by  all, 

the  16th  day  of  December,  1757,  aged  83  years. 

Leaving  a  numerous  issue." 

"  Likewise  William,  the  son  of  the  said 
Samuel  and  Ann  Athawes, 
died  December  20th  1763,  aged  54  years." 

"  In  remembrance  of  so  worthy  and  exemplary  a  character, 

his  grandson,  Samuel  Athawes, 

son  and  successor  of  Edward  Athawes, 

a  Virginian  Merchant  of  London, 

has    caused   this    tablet    to    be   fixed 

this  year  of  Our  Lord  1799." 

'   He  leased  the  Rectorial  Tithes. 


124  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"  In  Memory  of  the  Rev.  George  Burvill, 

of  Boxley,  in  the  County  of  Kent, 

who    died    April    17,   1798,  aged    73, 

Whose  remains  are  interred  near  this  place." 

"Also  the  remains  of  Juliana  Burvill,  his  wife, 

who  died  July  2nd,  1777,  aged  59  years." 

"  Also  of  John  Burvill,  their  son, 

a  Major  in  the  66tli  Regiment  of  Foot, 

who  died  at  Port  an  Prince,  in  St.  Domingo, 

March  16,  1796,  aged  38  years." 

"  Also  in  a  vault  beneath  this  tablet  are  interred 

the  remains  of  Peter  Rashleigh, 

who  died   August   25,   1807,   aged   20, 

the  2nd  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Rashleigh, 

of  Southfleet,  in  the  County  of  Kent, 

and  Frances  his  wife,  daughter  of 

the  Rev.  George  Burvill  and  Juliana  his  wife  ; 

also  of  Henry  Rashleigh  their  3rd  son, 

who  died  in  Calcutta,  in  the  East  Indies, 

December  18th,  1813, -aged  22  years." 

"  Also  of  Feances,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Rashleigh, 

Rector  of  Southfleet,  in  this  County, 

and  daughter  of  the  above  Rev.  George  Burvill,  of  Boxley. 

vShe  died  May  Uth,  1823,  aged  67." 

"  Also  of  Juliana,  w4fe  of 

the  Rev.  George  Gumming  Rashleigh, 

Fellow  of  Winchester  College, 

and  youngest  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Rashleigh. 

She  died  December  6th,  1832,  aged  42  years, 

and  was  buried  at  Silverton,  Devon." 


THE   CHUECH.  125 

"Also  of  the  Eev.  Peter  Bashleigli,  A.M., 

Rector  of  Soutlifleet,  and  Vicar  of  Barking,  Essex, 

and  one  of  Her  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace 

for  the  Western  Division. 
He  died  February  8th,  1830,  aged  90  years." 

"  Sacred 

To  the  Memory  of 

George   Sandys,  Esquire, 

Eminent  as   a  traveller,  a   divine   poet, 

and  a  good  man. 

Who  died  March  iv.,  MDCXLIIL,  at 

Boxley  Abbey,  aged  LXVI., 

and  is  interred  in  the  Chancel  of  this  Church. 

His   life 

was  throughout  blameless,  and  never  unuseful. 

Its  earliest  part 

was  sometimes  passed  in  observing  his  fellow-men  in 

foreign  lands, 

and  its  latter  years  at  home, 

in  celebrating  the  praises  of  his  God, 

and  attuning  the  "  Songs  of  Zion "  to  the 

British  Lyre."^ 

"  Thou  brouglit'st  me  home  in  safety,  that  this  earth 
"  Might  bury  me,  which  fed  me  from  my  birth  ; 
"Blest  with  a  healthful  age,  a  quiet  mind, 
"  Content  with  little.     To  this  work  design'd, 
"Which  I  at  length  have  finished  by  Thy  aid, 
"  And  now  my  vows  have  at  Thy  altar  i^aid." 

Erected  MDCCCXLVIIL 

By  an  admirer  of  Talents,  Piety  and  Virtues, 

His  Humble  Emulator  in  his  latter  task, 

T.  Griffith,  D.D.,  A^icar.  M(atthew)  M(ontagu). 

^  He  published  a  metrical  translation  of  the  Psalms. 


126  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"  In  liopes  of  a  joyfull  Resurrection,  near  this  place 
lyes  interred  the  body  of  Geo.  Charlton,  Gent.  His 
first  wife  was  Eliz.,  the  daughter  of  Col.  Ja.  Hudson, 
by  whom  he  left  issue  only  one  son,  Ja.  Charlton.  His 
second  marriage  was  wth.  Eliz.,  the  daughter  of  Robt. 
Andrews,  by  whom  he  had  4  sons  and  12  daughters. 
His  unaffected  Piety  towards  God  and  extensive  Charity 
towards  men,  his  steady  zeal  for  the  Established  Religion 
and  Government,  his  Conjugal  affection  and  Paternal 
Love,  his  commendable  Industry  in  all  his  affairs,  his 
known  Probity  in  all  his  actions,  that  Alacrity  with 
wch.  he  served  his  Country  and  Neighbourhood,  that 
Synserity  with  wch.  he  treated  his  friends,  that  kindness 
wch.  he  exprest  to  all,  made  him  justly  beloved  whilst 
he  lived,  and  lamented  when  he  dyed, 

August  12th,  1707,  aged  58  years. 
In    memory    of    whom,    and   that    Inviolable    Affection 
which   Continued  betwixt   them   23   years,    E.,  his   dis- 
consolate widow  and  executrix  hath  erected  this  Slender 
Monument.^' 

By  the  side  of  it  is  that  of  his  widow  : 

"  Beneath  this  Monument  is 

deposited    the    Body    of    Eliz. 

Charlton,  second  wife  of 

Geo.  Charlton,  Gent. 

ob.  21  May. 

Dom.  1750, 
^tatis  86." 


Anno-^ 


"  On  the  floor  in  the  S.  Aisle,  beneath  this  Monument 
are  tablets 


THE   CHURCH.  127 

(1)  To  the  memory  of  Jane,  wife  of  George  Cliarton, 
of  Boxley,  died  Oct.  26tli,  1678,  fetat.  56. 

(2)  To  Robt.  Andrews,  of  London,  died  July  18,  1684, 
aged  63.     Father  of  Eliz.,  wife  of  George  Charlton." 

"  Near  this  place  lie  the  remains 

of 

William  Alexander,  Esq.,  F.S.A.  and  L.S., 

One  of    the  Librarians  of    the    British  Museum, 

He  accompanied  the  Embassy  to  China 

in  1792, 

and  by  the  power  of  his  pencil  introduced 

into  Europe  a  better  knowledge  of  the 

Habits  and  Manners  of  China 

than    had    been     before    attained. 

He  was  a  man  of  mild  and  engaging  manners^ 

Active  benevolence  and  unsullied  Integrity, 

Waiting   patiently    for    the    Glory,    Honour    and 

Immortality,  brought  to  light  by  the  Gospel. 

He    was    born    at  Maidstone    10th    April,    1769. 

Died  23rd  July,  1816." i 

"  Sacred 

To  the  Memory  of 

Hannah  Best, 

wife  of  James  Best,  of  Chatham, 

who  died  9th  May,  1816, 

Aged  52  years." 

"Also  of 

the  said  James  Best,  Esquire, 

who   died   10th  December,   1828, 

Aged   73  years." 

^  This  tablet  hung  in  the  Chancel  until  the  last  restoration  of  the  Church, 
in  1876,  when  it  was  removed  to  the  South  Aisle  of  the  Nave. 


128  HISTOEY    OF   BOXLEY. 

In  the  South  Aisle  are  the  following  to  members  of  the 
Lushington  family  : 

"  Sacred  to  the  Memory  of 
Edmund    Henry    Lushington,    Esquire, 

Formerly  Puisne  Judge  of  Ceylon 

And     Master     of     the     Crown     Office, 

who  was  born  July  11th,  1766, 

At  Petershouse  Lodge,  in  Cambridge, 

and  died  March  26th,  1839, 

at  Park  House,  near  Maidstone,  in  this  parish." 

"And  of  his  wife,  Sophia, 

Daughter  of  Thomas  Philips,  Esquire, 

of  Sedgeley,  near  Manchester, 

who    was   born   July    30th,    1799, 

and  died  January  10th,  1841,  at  Park  House/' 

"  Of  Louisa  Sophia  Lushington, 

their  youngest  daughter,  born  January  28th,  1824, 

who  died  July  19th,  1854, 

while  travelling  from  Malta  to  England, 

at  Avignon,  where  she  is  buried." 

"And  of  Henry  Lushington, 

their  second  son,  born  April  13th,  1812, 

Chief  Secretary  to  the  Government  of  Malta, 

who  died  August  11th,  1855,  at  Paris, 
Also  while  travelling  from  Malta  to  England." 

"  In  token  of  a  debt  of  love  greater 

than  words  or  thought  can  express,  or 

than  life  can  pay, 

This  Tablet   is  raised 

By  the  remaining  children 

Of  Edmund  Henry  and  Sophia  Lushington, 


THE   CHURCH.  l29 

To  tlieir  Father,  Mother,  Brother  and   Sister, 
In  the  hope  that  they  may  rest  for  ever  and  ever 
with  Him  who  is  God  of  the  living." 

"  This  stone  is  likewise  sacred 

To  the  beloved  Memory  of  Edmund  Henry, 

only  son  of  Edmund  Law  Lushington 

and  Cecilia  his  wife, 

Who  was  born  December  31st,  1843,  in  Glasgow, 

And  died  Octoher  20th,  1856,  at  Eastbourne." 

"  Sacred 

To  the  Memory  of 

Thomas  Davies  Lushington, 

Third  son  of 

Edmund  Henry  and  Sophia  Lushington. 

He  was  born  June  29th,  1813, 

and  died  June  17th,  1858, 

at  sea,  off  Point  de  Galle,  in  Ceylon, 

After  a  life  of  active  employment 

For  more  than  20  years 

In  the  Madras  Civil  Service 

of   the  East    India   Company. 

His  high  principle,  wide  benevolence 

and  devotion  to  his  public  duties 

were  attested  by  all  connected  with  him 

in  official  or  social  intercourse. 

The  beauty,  nobleness  and  tenderness 

of  his  character 

In  all  the  dearest  relations  of  life 

will  be  ever  cherished  in  recollection 

By  those  who  knew  him  best ; 

K 


130  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

His  widow,  brothers  and  sisters, 
Who  have  raised  this  tablet  to  his  memory." 

"Them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus 
Will  God  bring  with  Him." 

"  Sacred  to  the  pure  and  tender  memory  of 

Emily,  second  daughter  of 

Edmund  Law  Lushington  and  Cecilia  Lushington, 

Born  June  23rd,  1849. 

From  a  life  of  childlike  sweetness 

Her  spirit  returned  in  peace  to  God  who  gave  it, 

On  Christmas  Day,  1868, 

Full  of  trust  in  Xt. 

And  strong  in  the  love  which  casteth  out  fear." 

"  Be  thou  faithful  unto  Death,  and 
I  will  give  thee  a  Crown  of  Life." 

"  Sacred  also 

To  the  blessed  remembrance  of  her  beloved 

and    loving    Aunt,    Ellen    Eliza,    sixth    daughter 

of  Edmund  Henry  and  Sophia  Lushington, 
Born  April  IGth,  1821,  died  January  14th,  1886." 

"Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord, 
For  they  rest  from  their  labours." 

"  Sacred 

To  the  sweet  and  hallowed  memory  of 

Lucy  Maria, 

Third  and  youngest  daughter  of 

Edmund   Law  Lushington 

•     and  Cecelia  Lushington, 

Born  Januarv  20th,  1853,  died  October  1st,  1874. 


THE   CHUECH.  131 

Dear  to  all  who  knew  lier^ 

Dearest  to  tliose  who  knew  her  best, 

She  was  taken  to  her  rest 

Full  of  trust  in  God, 

On  whom  her  mind  was  stayed, 

Who  kept  her  in  perfect  peace." 

"Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst,  after  righteousness,  for 
they  shall  be  filled." 

The  last  to  be  here  noted  is  to  the  memoi-y  of  one  who 
combined  considerable  taste  with  literary  power,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  "  mystic  circle  "  of  the  Royal  Society. 

"M.    S. 

Edwardi  Burton,  Soc(ietat)tis  Regiee  Socii, 

Qui  Annos  natus  LXXVI., 

Prudens,  simplex,  probus,  pius, 

Ex  hac  vita  migravit, 

Summisse  expectans  meliorem, 

Minime  propter  sui  ipsias 

Omnino  propter  Jesu  Christi  merita. 

Die  Martii  XL     A.  S.  MDCCCLXVII." 

It  were  no  unfitting  close  of  this  Chapter  on  the  Church 
to  note  the  change,  made  in  1422  at  the  solicitation  of 
the  Vicar  and  Parishioners,  in  the  "  Feast  of  the  Dedica- 
tion," on  the  ground  of  the  great  inconvenience  of  the 
season,  under  the  sanction  of  Abp,  Chichele.  It  had  been 
originally  held  on  the  10th  day  of  February,  but  was 
transferred  to  the  Monday  next  after  the  Festival  of  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul  (June  29th).  At  present  All  Saints'  Day 
is  observed  as  the  Church's  Festival. 


132  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"Heiiricus,  (Cliicliele)  &c.,  &c.,  dilectis  in  Christo 
filiis,  Vicai^io  et  Parochianis  ecclesie  Parochialis  de  Boxle 
nostre  dioc.  salutem^  &c.  Cum  festum  dedicacionis  ecclesie 
vestre  decimo  die  mensis  Februarii  ab  antiquo  fuerit 
iustitutum,  iu  quo  idem  festum  nequeat  cum  solempnitate 
et  reverencia  quibus  decet  debite  celebrari.  Nos  ad 
vestras  supplicacionem  et  iustanciam  speciales  idem  festum 
a  dicto  decimo  die  Februarii  usque  ad  et  iu  diem  Lune 
proximum  post  festum  Sanctorum  Petri  et  Pauli  duximus 
transferendum,  et  sic  transferimus  per  presentes,  ac  idem 
festum  eodem  die  Lune  singulis  annis  in  futurum  decer- 
nimus  celebrandum,  &c."  (Abp.  Cliicliele's  Register,  p.  ii., 
f.355.) 


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CHAPTER  VII. 

THE      WIATS. 

1\  /r  UCH  as  the  historic  interest  of  Boxley  in  early  days 
^^ ^  centered  in  its  Abbey,  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  all  such  interest  ceased  when  the  Monastic  character 
disappeared.  The  Suppression  of  Monasteries,  though 
it  swept  away  the  past,  opened  the  way,  under  changed 
circumstances,  to  new  and  very  different  interests.  States- 
men and  Poets  here  took  the  place  of  Cistercian  Monks. 
These,  too,  have  a  history,  interwoven  with  that  of  the 
Country. 

Conspicuous  among  them  comes  the  name  of  Wiat. 
The  first  of  that  family  to  settle  in  these  parts  and  to 
attain  to  any  note  was  Sir  Henry  Wiat,  who  in  1492 
purchased  of  the  Brents  the  neighbouring  property  of 
Allington  Castle.  This  grand  old  fortress,  like  so  many 
of  its  class,  had  seen  many  a  change  of  ownership  before 
it  came  to  the  Brents ;  in  previous  changes  its  name 
becoming  supplemented  by  the  patronymic  of  its  owner. 
For  instance,  when  Edward  I.  granted  to  Sir  Stephen 
de  Penchester  permission  to  restore  and  fortify  the 
dilapidated  Castle,  it  became  known  as  Allington  Pen- 
chester, and  when  his  daughter — he  having  no  son — 
married  Stephen  de  Cobham,  the  Castle  passed  into  that 
family,    and    was     called    Allington    Cobham.       It    next 


134  HISTORY  OF  BOXLEY. 

appears,  in  tlie  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  in  the  liands 
of  Jolm  Brent,  whose  descendant  sold  it,  as  ah-eady 
mentioned,  to   Sir  Henry  Wiat. 

In  him  history  presents  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
precarious  tenure  of  life  and  fluctuating  fortunes  of  men 
during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Henry  Wiat  was  a  young 
Cadet  of  a  Lancastrian  house,  the  youngest  son  of  a 
Yorkshire  Sqaire.  His  sympathies  threw  him  in  early 
life  on  the  side  of  the  banished  Henry  of  Richmond, 
and  thus  made  him  an  object  of  avowed  suspicion  to 
Richard  III.,  who,  while  retaining  him  about  the  Court, 
and  endeavouring  by  every  art  of  flattery,  cajolery, 
proffers  of  advancement,  and  threats,  to  win  him  over, 
when  he  found  that  his  loyalty  to  Richmond  was  not  to 
be  shaken,  had  him  imprisoned  and  subjected  to  various 
forms  of  torture.     Thus  he  became  ''the  Hero  of  the  Cat." 

Considering  that  so  well  known  a  writer  as  Horace 
Walpole^  throws  doubt,  not  only  on  the  story  of  his  being 
fed  by  a  Cat  while  in  prison,  but  on  his  being  imprisoned 
at  all,  it  is  important  to  examine  the  evidences  in  support 
of  this  family  tradition. 

Monumental  Inscriptions  are  certainly  not  always  to  be 
relied  upon,  and  if  the  one  in  Boxley  Church  stood  alone, 
ground  might  perhaps  be  assumed  for  doubting  its  truth. 
But  Sir  Henry^s  own  son,  the  Elder  Sir  Thomas,  declared 
that  his  father  had  himself  told  him  that  "  the  malice  of 
his  enemies  had  kept  him  two  years  in  stocks  and  irons." ^ 
There  is  also  still  extant  an  account  of  the  whole  incident, 
preserved  in  the  very  valuable  collection  of  family  Records 
known  as  "The  Wiat  MSS."  still  in  the  possession  of  Lord 

^  "Walpole's  Miscellaneous  Antiquities,  No.  11,  p.  7. 
"  Nott's  Memoir  of  Sir  Thomas  Wiat,  iv. 


THE   WIATS.  135 

Romney/  tlie  representative  of  that  branch  of  the  Wiat 
family  in  England.  Referring-  to  the  chequered  life  of  his 
ancestor^  it  says  : 

"  He  was  imprisoned  often  ;  once  in  a  cold  and  narrow 
Tower^  where  he  had  neither  bed  to  lye  on,  nor  deaths 
sufficient  to  warm  him,  nor  meat  for  his  mouth  ;  he  had 
starved  there  had  not  God,  who  sent  a  crow  to  feed  his 
prophet,  sent  this  his,  and  his  Country's  Martir,  a  Cat  both 

to   feed   and  warm  him It  was    his    own    relation 

from  whom  I  had  it.  A  Cat  came  one  day  down  into  the 
dungeon  unto  him,  and,  as  it  were,  offered  herself  unto 
him  ;  he  was  glad  of  her,  laid  her  in  his  bosome  to  warm 
him,  and  by  making  much  of  her,  won  her  love.  After 
this  she  would  come  every  day  unto  him  diverse  times, 
and,  when  she  could  get  one,  bring  him  a  pigeon ;  he 
complained  to  the  keeper  of  his  cold  and  short  fare ;  the 
answer  was,  he  durst  not  better  it ;  but,  said  Sir  Henry, 
"  If  I  can  provide  any  will  you  promise  to  dress  it  for  me  ?" 
'^I  may,  well  enough,"  said  the  keeper,  "you  are  safe  for 
that  matter:"  and  being  urged  again,  promised  him,  and 
kept  his  promise,  dressed  for  him  from  time  to  time  such 
pigeons  as  his  Acater,"  the  cat,  provided  for  him.  Sir  Henry, 
in  his  prosperity,  would  ever  make  much  of  a  cat,  and 
perhaps  you  will  never  find  a  picture  of  him  anywhere, 
but — like  Sir  Christopher  Hatton  with  his  dog — with  a  cat 
beside  him."  ^ 

At  the  Mote,  near  Maidstone,  Lord  Romney  has 
portraits  of  six  generations  of  Wiats,  from  Sir  Henry 
to    his    descendant    Serjeant    Edmund    Wiat,    and   among 

^  Who  lias  kindly  placed  them  at  the  liands  of  the  Author,  with  permission 
to  make  free  use  of  it  in  the  preparation  of  this  History. 

-  Caterer  or  Purveyor.  '  ^  Wiat  MSS.,  No.  30. 


136  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

them  is  a  picture  representing  Sir  Henry  in  prison,  visited 
by  his  friendly  cat,  who  is  dragging  in  a  pigeon  through 
the  bars.^  Not  that  this  jDicture  is  of  any  real  confirmatory 
value,  for  the  figure  of  Sir  Henry  is  merely  copied  from 
an  authentic  portrait  of  him  in  his  old  age,  also  at  the 
Mote,  while  at  the  time  of  his  imprisonment  he  must 
have  been  quite  young,  as  he  outlived  his  persecutor, 
Richard  III.,  no  less  than  52  years.  The  date,  1532, 
which  appears  on  the  picture,  was  also  valueless ;  it  was 
added  only  a  few  j^ears  ago  as  the  then  supposed  date  of 
Sir  Henry's  death,  which  has  been  since  proved,  by  the 
Inquisition  taken  after  his  death,  to  have  taken  place 
in  1537. 

Here  may  be  appropriately  added  another  extract  from 
the  same  MSS.  which  is  not  without  heraldic  interest, 
as  accounting  for  the  appearance  of  the  harnacles  on  the 
shield  of  this  branch  of  the  Wiat  family  : 

"  Besides  his  imprisonments,  he  was  diverse  times  put 
into    divers    kinds    of    tortures,    among    others,    with    an 

instrument    made    like   the    smith's    barnacles In 

witness  of  this  torment  Sir  Henry  Wyat  in  certain  carpets 
of  his,  which  I  have  seen,  caused  in  his  arms  there  the 
image  of  the  barnacles  to  be  wrought."  (In  a  note  by 
another  hand,)  "^One  of  the  Carpets  here  mentioned  is  now 
in  the  possession  of  Francis  Wiat,  heir  of  the  family,  at 

^  At  the  bottom  of  tlie  picture  are  the  following  terse  Latin  lines  with  the 
English  translation  : 

' '  Hunc  macrum,  rigidum,  moestum,  fame,  frigore,  cura, 
Pavi,  fovi,  acui,  came,  calore,  joco. 

This  Knight,  with  hunger,  cold,  and  care, 

Neere  starv'd,  pinchd,  pynde  away, 
I,  sillie  beast  did  feede,  heate,  cheere, 
With  dyett,  warmth,  and  playe." 


THE  WIATS.  137 

Quex,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  1735^  having  in  the  middle 
the  ancient  arms — three  boars'  heads  proper,  and  three 
lions  rampant,  on  a  bar — with  barnacles  at  eacli  corner." 

When  the  usurper  Richard  had  fallen  on  Bosworth 
Field  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Henry  VII.  was  to  liberate 
his  staunch  and  steadfast  adherent,  and  to  raise  him  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  from  the  private  gentleman  to 
the  highest  honours  at  Court ;  he  made  him  Knight  of 
the  Bath  on  the  day  of  his  Coronation,  July  23,  1509,  and 
Knight  Banneret  on  the  field,  after  the  Battle  of  the 
Spurs,  in  1513  ;^  then  a  Gentleman  of  his  Privy  Chamber, 
the  Master  of  his  Jewel-House,  Treasurer  of  his  Chamber, 
Privy  Councillor,  and  in  the  end  chose  him  as  one  of 
his  Executors. 

Sir  Henry  Wiat  had  purchased  the  Manor  of  Asliele,  or 
Uphall,  in  Norfolk,  to  which  was  attached  the  ofiice  of 
"  Grand  Serjeantry  of  the  Table  Linen "  of  the  Royal 
Household."  It  was  probably  in  connection  with  this  ofiice 
that  it  devolved  on  him  to  serve  as  ''Ewerer"^  at  the 
banquet  on  the  Marriage  of  Anne  Boleyn,  a  duty  however 
which  his  then  advanced  age  compelled  him  to  delegate 
to  his  son.  Sir  Thomas. 

But  the  purchase  which  most  concerns  this  history 
was  that  of  Allington  Castle,  in  1492,  when  he  left  the 
ancestral  home  of  Southauge,  in  Yorkshire,  for  the  more 
famed  one  on  the  banks  of  the  Medway,  with  its  chief 
advantage    of    proximity   to    Court.      Here    he   was  once 

1  Cott.  MSS.,  Caligula,  E.  I.  58. 

2  This  gave  him  not  only  the  right  to  arrange  the  table  at  the  Royal 
Coronation  Banquet,  but  afterwards  to  appropriate  the  linen  to  his  own  use. 

^  Letters,  die,  Domestic  and  Foreign,  Rolls  Series,  vol.  ii. ,  part  1.,  p.  42. 
Stow,  in  his  Annals,  p.  536,  says  it  was  probably  as  Master  of  the  King's 
Jewel  House  that  this  office  devolved  upon  him. 


138  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

lioiioured  by  a  visit  from  Henry  VIII.;,  with  whom,  as 
with  his  father,  he  was  in  high  favour.  This  visit  took 
place  in  1527,  and  was  on  the  occasion  of  Cardinal 
Wolsey^s  return  from  his  embassy  to  France,  being  at 
that  time  in  the  zenith  of  his  honour  and  power.  Caven- 
dish,^ in  his  "  Life  of  Wolsey,"  speaks  of  the  meeting  as  if 
it  was  a  very  trying  one  to  the  good  old  Knight,  who 
would  gladly  receive  his  Liege  Lord  with  all  fitting  loyalty 
and  honour,  but  evidently  gave  to  the  wily  and  ambitious 
Churchman  a  very  doubtful  welcome.^ 

Additional  testimony  to  the  worth  of  Sir  Henry  Wiat 
appears  on  the  monument  of  his  son-in-law,  Sir  Henry 
Lee,  in  Quarrendon  Church,  where  he  is  described  as 
''  that  faithful  and  constant  servant  of  two  Kings  of 
famous  memory,  Henry  VII.  &  VIII. ^^ 

One  amusing  anecdote  preserved  in  the  family  Records 
already  quoted,"  and  corroborated  by  having  a  place  in 
more  than  one  contemporary  history  shows  that  the  worthy 
Knight  was  not  ''  unequally  yoked,^^  but  had  in  his  Lady 
a  kindred  spirit.  The  story  is  thus  told  :  So  seldom  did 
his  attendance  at  Court  admit  of  his  visiting  Allington 
Castle  that  some  of  his  neighbours  did  not  even  know  him 
by  sight,  and  "the  Lady  Wiat  and  her  house"  was  a  more 
usual  phrase  a  great  deal  than  "  Sir  Henry^s."  That  in 
her  husband's  absence  she  ruled  her  house  well,  the 
following  incident  will  show  :  "  The  Lord  Abbot  of  Boxley 
coming  often  to  her  house  and  sometimes  playing  his 
pranks  there,  she,"  like  the  Dragon  of  the  Castle,  "  hearing 
of  it,  set  a  watch  upon  him ;  so  he  was  taken  in  the 
manner,   and  for  his  knavery  she  commanded  him  to  be 

1  Vol.  L,  p.  122. 

2  WiatMSS.,  No.  41. 


THE    WIATS.  139 

carried  into  the  gate-liouse  and  be  laid  in  tlae  stocks. 
....  The  matter  Avas  quickly  brought  to  the  Council 
Table ;  neither  might  Sir  Henry  otherwise  answer  the 
accusation  than  Avith  this  jest :  that  his  wife  was  the 
Master,  and  he  did  verily  thiuk  if  he  had  angered  her^  as 
Lord  Abbot  did,  or  any  of  the  other  Lords  there  23resent 
in  that  place,  where  she  took  herself  to  be  the  Justice  of 
the  Peace  at  the  least,  she  would  have  done  as  much  for 
him  also,  or  any  of  them." 

The  last  act,  according  to  Waljoole,^  that  his  Royal 
Master  imposed  on  him  as  a  Privy  Councillor  was  "  the 
hateful  one  of  conducting  to  the  Tower  Edmund  de-la-Poer, 
Earl  of  Suffolk,  whom  Henry  had  basely  extorted  from 
Philip,  King  of  Castile,  while  his  guest  in  England,  and 
as  perfidiously  consigned  to  execution  with  his  dying 
breath."- 

Sir  Henry  willed  "  to  be  buried  in  the  Churche  of 
Mylton  besyde  Gravesende,  ....  and  that  my  Chantry 
at  Mylton  do  contynew,  stande,  and  abyde."^  All  trace 
of  the  tomb  has  long  since  disappeared. 

The  history  of  his  son.  Sir  Thomas,  (always  called  ^Hhe 
Elder,")  though  his  was  a  more  peaceful  life  than  that  of 
Sir  Henry,  or  that  of  his  son,  also  Sir  Thomas,  was  not 
without  its  incidents  of  interest.  He  Avas  born  at  AUington 
in  1503,  and  entered  at  St.  John's   College,   Cambridge.'^ 

^  Miscellaneous  Antiquities,  No.  11,  p.  7. 

-  This  is  one  of  Walpole's  "rhetorical  flourishes,"  leading  to  the  inference 
that  Suffolk  was  at  once  executed  by  Henry  VII.,  in  his  dying  moments, 
whereas  he  was  kept  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  for  seven  years,  and  was 
beheaded  by  Henry  VIII.  in  1513,  certainly  under  the  pretext  that  it  was  in 
accordance  with  his  father's  dying  warning  and  command.  Bacon's  Life  of 
Henry  VII.,  p.  633.     Hume's  History,  Chap.  XXVIL,  vol.  iv.,  p.  433. 

*  Consistory  Court,  Canterbury.  ■*  Cooper's  Aihen.  Cantab.,  i.,  80. 


140  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Anthony  a'  Wood  claims  liim  as  an  alumnus  of  Oxford 
also,  and  says  "  a  Portrait  of  liim  hung  in  the  Picture 
Grallery/'^  assigning  to  him  not  only  high  birth  but  also 
high  attainments,  not  only  "  ex  illustri  prosapia,"  but 
"  splendide  dodus,"  calling  him  "  the  delight  of  the  Muses 
and  of  Mankind : "  while  the  learned  Roger  Ascham 
declares  that  he  was  "  one  of  the  best  translators  of  the 
Latin  Poets  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived."  It  is  no  wonder 
then  that  many  a  detail  of  a  life  so  conspicuous  and  dis- 
tinguished should  be  forthcoming. 

His  fame  chiefly  rests  on  his  poetry  and  his  diplomacy ; 
his  early  friendship  with  that  noble  kindred  spirit,  the 
accomplished  Earl  of  Surrey,  doubtless  helping  to  stimu- 
late his  poetic  tastes,  and  to  give  him  a  status  in  the 
literary  world. 

Royal  favour,  too,  seems  to  have  been  a  heritage  of  the 
Wiats,  for  Sir  Thomas  was  not  long  in  securing  it.  The 
incident  which  brought  him,  Avhile  quite  a  young  man,  to 
the  King's  favourable  notice,  while  it  displayed  his 
discernment,  was  not  without  its  ludicrous  side  ;  and  being 
little  known,  may  be  here  related  at  length.- 

He  chanced  to  meet  Sir  John  Russell,  afterwards  Lord 
Russell,  and  first  Earl  of  Bedford,  on  the  eve  of  his  going 
on  an  embassy  to  Rome,  and  was  persuaded  to  accompany 
him  there.  On  their  arrival  they  were  received  with 
marked  attention  and  effusive  courtesy,  with  all  the  most 
attractive   blandishments    of    the    Roman    Court,    with  an 

^  Anthony  a'  Wood's  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  University  of  Oxford, 
vol  ii.,  p.  973.  He  says  also  that  on  leaving  Cambridge  he  went  to  Wolsey's 
College,  Oxford,  but  this  College  was  not  incorporated  till  1.524,  at  which 
time  Hall  (in  his  C/ironides)  says  Wiat  was  one  of  the  King's  Household. 
Nott's  Memoirs,  p.  8. 

^  Wiat  MSS.,  No.  18.     Even  Dr.  Nott,  in  his  Memoirs,  does  not  allude  to  it. 


To  Face  Page  140. 


THE   WIATS.  141 

adroitlj  whispered  ^  offer  of  "plenary  dispensation.'"  But 
Sir  Tliomas  seeing  through  their  wiles,  thus  laid  with  the 
view  of  making  their  embassy  a  failure,  by  bringing  a 
scandal  on  the  English  character,  finding,  too,  their 
persistent  attempts  to  defer  the  negotiations,  urged  for 
letters  of  recall.  The  sequel  cannot  be  better  given  than 
— on  the  same  authority — in  the  words  of  Sir  Thomas's 
grandson,  who  had  the  account  from  the  son  of  Sir  John 
Russell  himself.  He  thus  records  it :  "  After  much  delaie 
and  expense  of  money  in  the  Court  of  Rome,  the 
Ambassador  urging  earnestly  his  despeche  on  letter  from 
the  Kinge,  he  finally  received  answer  of  evil  satisfaction, 
according  to  the  expectation  of  the  former  prognostike, 
which  signified  to  the  Kinge,  he  was  suddenly  cald  home 
by  new  letters.  And  in  his  returne,  in  a  certain  place 
changing  horses,  Sir  Thomas,  in  his  chamber,  on  the  wall, 
drew  a  maze,  and  in  it  a  Minotaur,  with  a  triple  crown  on 
his  head,  bothe  as  it  were  falling,  with  a  bottome-  of  thred 
with  certain  guives  and  broke  chines  (?  chains)  then  lying 
bye,  and  over,  this  word — 

Laqueus  contritus  est,  et  nos  liberati  sumusJ 
This   was   not  finished   when   the  Ambassador  remounted 
Avitli  Sir  Thomas,  who  in  the   way  told  him  what  he  had 
left  behind  him  in  returne  for  the  scorne  used  to  them  on 
their  arrival  at  Rome,  and  in  distaine  of  the  evil  survase  of 

the  Kinge's  affaires It   was    thought    an    occasion 

to  the  Kinge  of  his  imploing  Sir  Thomas  the  more  in  his 
servisses  of  importance  and  trust  ever  after. 

^  Noticed  by  Mr.  Bruce  in  a  Paper  in  the  Gentleman  s  Magazine  for  1850. 
N.  S.,  vol,  XXX.,  4. 

-  A  ball  of  thread. 

*  "The  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  delivered."     Ps.  cxxiv.,  6, 


142  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Among  the  Wiat  pictures  already  mentioned  as  being  at 
the  Mote^  is  a  more  finished  drawing  (said  to  have  been 
drawn  for  the  King's  amusement)  of  that  rough  sketch  on 
the  wall,  in  which  aj^pear  the  Maze  and  the  Minotaur,  as  a 
memento  of  the  encounter  at  Rome,  in  which  he  won  his 
diplomatic  spurs. 

A  man  so  highl^y  gifted  and  favoured  could  hardly  hope 
to  escape  altogether  the  slanders  and  calumnies  of  Court 
intrigue,  and  it  was  in  connection  with  the  name  of  the 
ill-fated  Anne  Boleyn  that  the  busy  tongue  of  scandal 
assailed  him.  For  a  time  it  told,  and  he  fell  into  disgrace. 
But  the  impvitation  was  one  easy  to  refute,  and  he  was 
soon  restored  to  favour.-  That  Sir  Thomas  did  entertain 
a  deep  affection  for  the  fascinating  Court  beauty  was 
admitted  :  but  its  very  depth,  and  his  own  high  principle, 
were  the  best  answer  to  the  charge.  And  as  such  the 
King  regarded  it;  and  in  1536  conferred  Knighthood  on 
him,  and  the  following  year  he  was  nominated  High 
vSheriff  of  Kent,  and  also  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Spain.^ 
While  still  there  he  was  recalled  by  the  King  to  hasten 
to  Nice,  in  order  to  frustrate  the  intrigues  of  Pope 
Paul  III.  with  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.  in  a  league 
against  England. 

This  Embassy  involved  Sir  Thomas  Wiat  in  a  far  graver 
and  more  serious  charge,  which,  however,  he  no  less 
successfully  rebutted.  Bishop  Bonner,  of  London,  was  his 
Colleague,    and    he,   instigated    by    malice    and    jealousy, 

1  Not  at  Quex,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Bruce  in  his  Paper. 

*  Cavendish's  Life  of  IVolsey,  ii.,  177.  Fuller,  in  his  JForihics,  under  the 
head  of  Kent  (quoted,  too,  by  Nott  in  his  Memoirs  of  Sir  1\  Wiat,  p. 
xix.,  n.),  says  that  "by  his  industry,  innocence,  and  discretion  he  extricated 
himself." 

2  xS  ott's  Memoirs  of  Sir  T.  Wiat,  p.  xxviii. 


THE    WIATS.  143 

brought  against  liim  a  charge  of  having  neglected  the 
King's  interest,^  and  even  of  treason.  For  this  he  was 
tried,  but  fully  and  freely  acquitted,  whereon  the  King- 
conferred  on  him  additional  honours. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  by  the  exchange  of  lands  with 
the  Crown'  Sir  Thomas  Wiat  became  possessed  of  the 
Boxley  Abbey  property,^  and  is  thus  brought  within  the 
range  of  the  history  of  Boxley  Parish.  Of  this,  however, 
he  had  but  short  enjoyment. 

The  next  honour  conferred  on  him  by  the  King  was 
to  prove  fatal  to  him.  The  Emperor  Charles  V.  was 
sending  a  special  Ambassador  to  Henry,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Wiat  was  selected  for  the  distinguished  ofBce  of  the 
King's  representative  to  receive  him  on  his  arrival  in 
England.  On  his  journey  to  Falmouth  for  that  purpose 
Sir  Thomas  was  attacked  with  fever,  and  died  at 
Sherborne,  at  the  early  age  of  39. 

Active  as  was  his  public  diplomatic  life,  his  early  taste 
for  poetry  seemed  to  retain  its  hold  upon  him,  and  when 
he  could  steal  away  from  Court  for  the  more  peaceful 
enjoyment  of  his  country  retirement  on  the  banks  of  the 
Medway,  he  would  still  indulge  in  the  pursuit  of  country 
sports,  and  proved  himself  no  unworthy  votary  of  the 
Muses. 

Of  his  mode  of  life  when  in  his  old  ivy-clad  Castle  more 
than  one  incident  is  preserved  among  the  family  Eecords.'^ 
The  following  will  give  an  insight  into  the  home  of  the  son 
of  the  man  who  was  fed  by  a  cat  in  prison  : 

^  Bp.  Bonner's  letter  charging  Sir  Thomas  with  being  guilty  of  what 
amounted  to  High  Treason,  and  Wiat's  reply,  are  preserved  among  the 
"Petyt  MSS."  in  the  Inner  Temple  Library  ;  also  in  Harleian  MSS.,  243 

-  See  page  9. 

-  Wiat  MSS. 


144  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

"  He  brought  up  at  Alliugton  Castle  a  Lyon's  wlielpe 
and  an  Irisli  Greyhound^  in  whicli  he  took  much  delight; 
and  their  manner  was  in  his  absence  to  attend  his  home 
coming  at  the  gate  or  hall  dooi%  and  many  times  there 
they  met  him^  and  with  great  delight  entertained  him. 
But  at  length,  when  the  Lyon's  whelpe  grew  into  courage 
and  heat,  insted  of  friendly  welcome  it  ran  roaring  upon 
him,  and  flew  fiercely  into  his  bosome,  and  had  certainly 
destroyed  him  but  for  the  greyhound,  who  coming  after 
the  Lyon,  was  as  soon  in  his  neck  as  he  in  his  master's 
bosome,  and  with  his  teeth  pulled  him  on  his  back,  until 
Sir  Thomas,  in  a  most  present  and  undaunted  courage, 
drew  forth  his  rapier  and  ran  it  into  the  rebel's  heart." 

"  When  Henry  8th  heard  of  this  memorable  accident, 
withal  calling  to  mind  Sir  Thomas  Wiat's  manners  towards 
himself,  free  from  flattery  and  full  of  resolution  and 
liberty,   .   .   .   .  "  Oh,"  said  he,  '^  He  will  tame  Lyons." 

The  Inquisition  held  after  Sir  Thomas's  death  shows 
that  he  was  "  seised"  of  considerable  property  besides 
Allington  Castle  and  the  Abbey ;  there  were  the  Manors  of 
Boxley,  Newnham  Court,  Thorne  (?  Thornham),  Ovenhall, 
Aylesford,  East  Farley,  West  Farley,  Teston,  and  East 
Peckham.  But  all  this  was  soon  to  pass  away  never  again 
to  be  re-united,  through  the  rash  patriotism  (some  call  it 
Rebellion,  because  it  did  not  succeed)  of  his  noble-minded 
son,  of  whom  it  is  now  time  to  speak. 

The  name  of  Sir  Thomas  Wiat  the  Younger  is  chiefly 
memorable  in  English  history  in  connection  with  the 
Insurrection  which  he  unfortunately  headed.  Of  his  life 
little  else  is  recorded,  beyond  an  incident  in  his  early  days 
which  brought  him  into  trouble.  Mention  has  been 
made   of    the   friendship  which  existed   between  him   and 


THE   WIATS.  145 

Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey.  It  would  seem  to 
have  been  transmitted  to  Ms  sou.  One  result  of  it  was 
for  a  time  prejudicial  to  the  rising  young  Courtier,  for  it 
involved  him  in  what  might  at  first  sight  appear  to  be 
little  better  than  an  unseemly  youthful  escapade.  It 
occurred  thus  :  In  the  year  1543  the  Earl,  moved  by  what 
would  seem  a  Quixotic  desire  to  curb  the  prevailing 
recklessness  of  the  young  Londoners  of  that  day  resolved 
to  try  to  alarm  them  out  of  their  profane  revelries, 
and  to  bring  them  into  more  orderly  lives.  The  plan  he 
adopted,  and  in  the  carrying  out  of  which  he  enlisted 
the  sympathy  of  his  young  friend,  was  to  make  a  sudden 
attack  in  the  depth  of  night  on  the  house  in  which  these 
rollickers  used  to  meet,  and  to  break  all  the  windows, 
thus  hoping  to  alarm  them  into  sobriety  and  awe.^ 

For  such  a  disturbance  of  the  public  peace,  the  authori- 
ties, being  utterly  unable  to  understand  or  appreciate  their 
motive,  arrested  them  both  and  carried  them  off  into 
durance  vile,  Surrey  to  the  Fleet,  and  Wiat  to  the  less 
dignified  prison  of  the  Counter.^  However,  at  the  inter- 
vention of  influential  friends,  they  were  soon  liberated  ; 
both,  alas,  ere  many  years,  to  die  on  the  scaffold,  Surrey, 
"the  flower  of  the  English  Nobility,"  as  the  last  of  the 
many  victims  of  the  suspicious  tyrrany  of  Henry  VIII.,  and 

^  An  explanation  of  his  motives  in  this  strange  noctm-nal  adventure  cannot 
be  better  given  than  in  Surrey's  own  words,  in  liis  Satire  against  the  Citizens 
of  London,  (Nott's  Memoir  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey)  where  he  sa3's  : 

"In  secret  silence  of  the  night, 
This  made  me  with  a  reckless  breast 

To  wake  the  sluggards  with  my  bow, 
A  figure  of  the  Lord's  behest, 

Whose  scourge  for  sin  the  Scriptures  show,  &c." 

^  Nott's  Memoirs  of  Surrey,  p.  liv. 
L 


146  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Wiat^  as  tlie  victim  of  his  heroic  though  fatally  rash  zeal 
in  attempting  to  prevent  the  odious  alliance  of  Mary  with 
Philip  of  Spain. 

Thus  fell  Thomas  Wiat  the  Younger;  in  the  vigorous 
language  of  Philipott/  he  "  with  an  unbroken  though 
calamitous  virtue,  thinking  it  a  lesse  stain  to  forfeit  his 
estate  than  to  debauch  his  conscience,  stuck  close  to 
the  Sacramental  Covenant  by  which  he  and  the  rest  of 
the  Counsel  had  oblieged  themselves-  to  Henry  VIII.  to 
preserve  as  much  as  in  them  lay  his  two  daughters,  Mary 
and  Elizabeth,  from  confederating  with  any  foreign  alliance, 
and  so  engaged  in  that  design  which  overset  him,  and 
sunk  him  and  his  patrimony  into  that  ruine."  He,  paying 
the  penalty  of  his  self-sacrifising  devotion  to  his  Royal 
Master's  dying  injunctions,  was  beheaded  on  the  11th  of 
April,  1554,  and  the  once  goodly  property,  thus  confiscated 
to  the  Crown,  was  broken  up  into  portions,  to  gratify 
the  unscrupulous  minions  of  the  Court. 

But  Elizabeth,  when  satisfied  that  the  Wiats  had  no 
complicity  with  the  intrigues  which  disturbed  the  earlier 
years  of  her  reign,  granted  a  revocation  of  the  Bill  of 
Attainder  in  favour  of  Gleorge,  Sir  Thomas's  eldest  son, 
and  the  representative  of  the  house,  and  restored  to  him 
a  portion  of  the  old  estate,  and  three  years  after  granted 
the  Abbey-House  and  adjoining  land  to  the  widowed 
mother,  with  reversion  to  her  son  George,  and  the  same 

^   Villare  Cantianum,  p.  89. 

^  The  author  has  in  vain  searched  for  the  original  authority  for  the  inference 
that  Henry  did  impose  this  injunction  on  Wiat  and  his  Colleagues  in  the 
Council ;  but  accepts  it  on  the  testimony  of  Philipott,  who  lived  ■\vithin  a 
century  of  the  time,  and,  holding  a  high  position  at  the  College  of  Arms,  had 
the  advantage  of  access  to  documents,  ke. ,  since  lost. 


To  Face  Page  116. 


Sir    THOMAS    WIAT,    Kt.    (The    Younger;, 


THE   WIATS.  147 

year  gave  to  lier  other  son,  Edward,  anotlier  outlying 
portion  of  the  confiscated  property.^ 

Of  George  Wyat  little  seems  on  record,  save  that  he 
married  a  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Finch,  of  Eastwell,  and 
was  diligent  in  compiling  the  records  of  his  illustrious 
ancestors.  He  died  in  1624,  and  was  succeeded  in  his 
Allington  and  Boxley  estates  by  his  more  distinguished 
son,  Francis,  who  was  Knighted  by  James  I.  in  1618,  and 
was  Governor  of  Virginia  from  1621  to  1626,  and  again 
in  1638,  after  it  had  become  a  Crown  Colony.  He  married 
Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Samuel  Sandys,  and  grand- 
daughter of  Dr.  Edwin  Sandys,  Archbishop  of  York.  Sir 
Francis  retired  to  Boxley  on  his  return  from  America,  and 
died  here  in  1 644.  He  had  a  younger  brother,  Hawte,  so 
called  after  the  surname  of  his  paternal  grandmother,  who 
became  Vicar  of  Boxley  in  1632,  and  also  of  Merston,  in 
this  County,  and  died  in  1638,  leaving  several  children, 
some  of  whom  emigrated  to  Virginia,  under  the  auspices 
of  their  uncle.  Sir  Francis,  where  their  descendants  are 
namerous  at  the  present  day. 

Before  leaving  this  generation  of  the  Wyats  it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  mention  two  members  of  the  family  who 
indirectly  belong  to  the  history  of  Boxley.  In  the  Church 
Register,  under  date  1623,  is  the  name  of  "  Eleanora  uxor 
Joh'  Finch,^'  with  a  Latin  elegiac  poem  from  the  pen  of 
the  then  vicar,  George  Case,  reciting  her  virtues,  and 
alluding  to  her  troubled  life.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
George  Wyat,  and  in  1612  she  married  her  kinsman, 
John  Finch,  then  a  little  known,  but  rising,  barrister.  He 
became  Member  of   Parliament   for  Canterbury,   and  was 

1  See  pages  10,  12.  Patent  Rolls,  10  and  13,  Elizabeth.  Augm.  Rolls, 
ii.  n.  10  ;  iii.  n.  57,  58  ;  v.  n.  15. 


148  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

chosen  Speaker  of  the  House  in  1628  ;  five  years  after,  he 
was  appointed  Puisne  Judge,  and  the  following  year  Chief 
Justice  of  Common  Pleas,  then  a  Privy  Councillor,  and  in 
1639  made  Lord  Keeper,^  and  in  1640  raised  to  the 
Peerage  as  Lord  Finch  of  Fordwich.  Having  been  a 
warm  supporter  of  King  Charles's  "Ship-money"  scheme, 
he  became  especially  obnoxious  to  the  Parliamentarians, 
and  in  the  general  downfall  of  the  King's  party  he  had  to 
fly  for  his  life,  and  escaped  to  Holland.  His  marriage 
with  Eleanor  Wyat  was  evidently  a  most  unhappy  one. 
She  did  not  live  to  see  his  rise,  and  his  fall,  for  she  died  in 
1623.  A  letter  still  preserved  among  the  family  Eecords- 
discloses  a  most  melancholy  state  of  conjugal  estrange- 
ment. It  was  written  in  1619,  from  the  house  of  her 
kinsman.  Sir  William  Twisden,  not  long  before  her  death ; 
a  most  touching  letter, — not  an  appeal  or  remonstrance,  but 
an  almost  dying  farewell  and  assurance  of  forgiveness  for 
the  past, — betraying  in  most  piteous  terms  a  state  of  hope- 
lessness and  resignation.  His  second  wife  was  a  daughter 
of  Dr.  Fotherby,  for  a  short  time  Dean  of  Canterbury.  It 
is  probable  that  he  intended  to  make  the  Cathedral  City 
his  home  after  his  return  to  England  on  the  Restoration, 
for  he  died  there  very  soon  after,  and  was  buried  in 
St.  Martin's  Church,^  where  a  fulsome  Inscription  on  a 
cumbrous  monument  proclaims  his  death  as  that  of  a  man 
"  Full  of  Offices,  full  of  days.  He  migrated  hence  to  the 
Ancient  of  Days,  November  30,  1660,  aged  77." 

Neither  friend  nor  foe  seems  to  have  had  much  to  say  in 
his  favour  while  living.    Clarendon,"*^  who  was  his  Colleague 

^  Foss's  Tahihc  Curia' es,  p.  17. 

2  Wiat  MSS.,  No.  31. 

^  Canon  Routledge's  History  of  St.  Martins,  Canterbury,  p.  169. 

*  History  of  the  Rebellion  (Oxford,  1845),  vol.  i.,  p.  30. 


To  Face  Page  148. 


;ir    JOHN     FINCH, 
Lord  Fordwich. 


To  Face  Page  149. 


THE   WIATS.  149 

as  a  Royalist,  said  of  liim  tliat  lie  "  had  led  a  licentious 
life,  in  a  restrained  fortune,  with  a  stock  of  good  wit  and 
natural  parts,  but  without  the  superstructure  of  much 
knowledge  of  his  profession."  While  in  the  height  of  his 
career  he  was  thus  described  bv  Lucius  Carey,  Lord 
Falkland,  as  "  a  silent  Speaker,  an  unjust  Judge,  and  an 
unconscionable  Keeper."  ^ 

There  is  yet  one  other  name  which,  on  the  strength  of 
frequent  residence  at  the  Abbey,  is  entitled  to  notice  here. 
It  has  been  mentioned  that  Sir  Francis  Wiat,  the  Governor 
of  Virginia,  had  married  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Sir 
Samuel  Sandys.  George  Sandys^  Sir  SamueFs  youngest 
brother,  and  therefore  uncle  of  Margaret,  Lady  Wyat, 
appears  to  have  made  the  Abbey  a  frequent  place  of 
sojourn.  It  has  been  said  that  a  Prophet  is  not  without 
praise  save  in  his  own  country  ;  but  with  a  Poet  the  very 
opposite  seems  to  have  held  good,  at  least  in  this  case. 
George  Sandys  had  been  a  great  traveller.  He  had 
achieved  "le  grand  tour"  before  it  had  become  so  common 
and  so  fashionable  a  part  of  the  education  of  a  young 
man  of  famil}".  He  travelled  through  the  Turkish  Empire, 
Egypt,  the  Holy  Land,  Italy,  &c.,  and  on  his  return  home 
published  a  "  Relation  of  his  Journey,"  replete  not  only 
with  personal  descriptions,  but  with  Classical  allusions. 
He  also  wrote  a  ''  Metrical  Paraphrase  of  the  Book  of 
Psalms  and  the  Songs  of  Solomon."  But  in  Boxley  the 
fame  of  the  Traveller  seems  to  have  been  lost  in  that  of  the 
Poet,  for  in  recording  his  death  the  poetic  George  Case, 
then  Vicar  of  Boxley,  pronounces  him  to  have  been  "  The 
greatest  Poet  of  his  time,"  though  apparently  the  outer 
world  took  a  less  exalted  view  of  his  poetic  poAvers,  for 

1  Speeches  of  Lord  Falkland,  Br.  Museum,  E.  106,  9.  26. 


150  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

Johnson  does  not  name  liim  or  even  allude  to  liim  in  his 
"  Lives  of  the  Poets. ^' 

Boxley  Abbe}^;,  however,  retained  for  nearly  tAvo  Cen- 
turies a  memorial  of  his  presence  here,  for  so  recently  as 
the  year  1818  there  might  be  seen,  though  in  decay,  the 
remains  of  a  small  building  on  the  raised  terrace  in  front 
of  the  present  dwelling  house,  which  some  pronounced  to 
be  one  of  the  old  '^  cells,"  an  idea  suggested  no  doubt  by 
the  Monastic  surroundings;  others  called  it  a  "bath," 
though  its  elevated  position  on  the  top  of  the  wall  would 
disprove  either  conjecture.  Its  real  history  breaks  in 
upon  us  from  a  most  unlooked  for  quarter,^  for  Richard 
Baxter,  the  celebrated  Puritan  writer,  in  one  of  his  letters 
to  a  friend,  says  :  "  It  did  me  good,  when  Mrs.  Wyat 
invited  me  to  Boxley  Abbey  to  see  on  the  old  stone  wall 
in  the  garden  a  Summerhouse  with  this  inscription  in  large 
golden  letters,  '  In  this  place  Mr.  Greorge  Sandys,  after  his 
travels  over  the  world,  retired  himself  for  his  poetry  and 
contemplation.'  "  So  that  after  all  it  was  neither  a  "  cell" 
nor  a  "  bath,"  but  a  Summer-house,  and  its  pseudo-classic 
columns  show  that  it  must  have  been  erected  during  the 
W3^at  occu^panc^'  of  the  Abbey  :  but  all  trace  of  it  has  long 
since  disappeared.- 

To  return  to  the  direct  line  of  the  family. 

Henry  Wyat,  for  so  about  this  time  the  name  came 
to  be  spelt,  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Francis,  was  born  in 
1619,  and  married  Jane,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Edward 
Duke,  Kt.,  of  Cossington,  and  left  an  only  daughter, 
Frances,   who   became   the   wife   of   Sir  Thomas   Sylyard, 

^  Sylvester's  Heliquice  Baxteriance. 

2  The  accompanying  Illustration  is  copied  from  a  print  in  the  ' '  Anti- 
quarian and  Topographical  Cabinet  "  of  1818,  vol.  iii.,  p.  27. 


To  Face  Page  150. 


THE  WIATS.  151 

Bart.  Other  sons  of  Sir  Francis  died  in  infancy :  but 
in  his  youngest  son,  Edwin,  who  was  born  in  1629,  the 
family  fame  was  continued.  He  rose  to  distinction  in  the 
Legal  and  Political  workl  (as  is  fully  recorded  on  the 
massive  genealogical  Monument  erected  by  himself  in  the 
Church)  ;  he  was  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  the  County  of 
Kent,  he  was  made  Sergeant-at-Law  in  1684,  Recorder  of 
Canterbury,  and  also  of  Maidstone,  which  latter  Borough 
he  represented  in  Parliament ;  he  was  also  Chief  Justice 
of  Grand  Sessions  for  the  Counties  of  Carmarthen,  Pem- 
broke, and  Cardigan.^  In  1665  he  married  Frances,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Crispe,  Esq.,  of  Quex,  in  the  Isle  of 
Thanet.  His  connection  with  Boxley  is  chiefly  with 
reference  to  a  family  law-suit  in  which  he  claimed,  and 
succeeded  by  arbitration  in  obtaining,  from  his  niece 
Lady  Selyard  that  portion  of  the  property  which  had 
come  to  her  from  her  father,  Henry  Wyat.- 

Edwin  Wyat  died  in  1714,  leaving  his  estate  to  his 
eldest  surviving  son,  Francis,  who,  dying  without  issue, 
left  the  Boxley  property  to  his  only  brother  Richard,  who 
also  leaving  no  child,  was  the  last  of  the  English  branch 
of  the  old  Kentish  family.  From  him  the  Boxley  estates 
passed  by  bequest  to  his  kinsman,  Robert,  second  Lord 
Romney,  whose  paternal  grandmother,  Margaretta,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Bosville,  Esq.,  was  grand-daughter  of 
Sir  Francis  Wyat,  Kt.,  the  Governor  of  Virginia. 

^  So  recorded  on  the  monument  in  the  Church  (see  page  117),  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  lie  was  not  on  a  Commission  to  fill  that  office. 

^  Among  the  Wiat  Portraits  at  the  Mote  is  one  of  Sir  Edwin  Wiat  by  Sir 
Godfrey  Kneller. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE    REGISTERS. 

AN  unusual  feature  of  tliis  (.^Imrcli  Register  is  that, 
the  entries,  instead  of  being  arranged  in  the  ordinary 
manner  under  the  separate  heads  of  Baptisms,  Marriages, 
and  Burials,  have  been  inserted  promiscuously  in  the 
order  of  time. 

A  Memorandum  on  the  first  page  states  that  it  is  a 
Transcript  of  entries  made  during  the  preceding  40  years, 
the  whole  being  copied  out  by  George  Case,  the  then 
Vicar,  in  1598. 

"Liber  Registralis  Ecclesiee  de  Boxlye,  continens  nomina 
eorum  qui,  a  primo  beat»  memorise  Elizabethge  Regiminis 
anno,  vel    baptismo    initiati,    vel   matrimonio    copulati    et 
conjuncti,  vel  sepulturte  traditi  fuere  in  dicta  parochia. 
Vivat  Elyzabetha  Regina 
Anglias,  Francia3,  et  Hybernia? 
Regina,  Fidei  Defensatrix, 
Virgo  Virtute  Victoriosa" 
"  Emptus  fuit  liber  iste  xi.  mo.  die  Octobris  anno  Incar- 
nationis    Dominicte    1598,    pretio   xs.  ex  sumptibus    dictae 
parochias,  Incumbente  tum  ibidem  Georgio  Case,  Artium 
Magistro,     Oxoniensi,    CEconomicis^    illius    anni    Johanne 
Payne  et  Richardo  Goldsmith,  anno  regni  Reginse  Eliza- 
beth^e  xl. 

1  The  Cliiu-chwardeiis  vcere  so  called  as  having  charge  of  the  Parish  Funds. 


THE   REGISTERS.  153 

The  entries    for  the   first    two  years   are  here  given  in 
extenso,  to  show  the  unusual  system  above  referred  to. 

Anno  Domini  1558.     Regni  Hegina?  Elizabethge  1. 
B.     Mildreda,  filia  Johannis  Scheeffe^  baptizata  xvii  Nov. 
S.     Thomas  Moningham^  sepultus  xxviii  Nov. 
B.     Helena,  filia  Thomae  Herst,  baptizata  viii  Dec. 
S.     Laurentius,  famulus  Johannis  Dunkyn,  sepultus  x  Dec, 
B.     Richardus,  filius  Roberti  Bayforde,  baptizatus  xii  Dec. 
S.     Agnes,  uxor  Roberti  Waren,  sepulta  xxvi  Dec. 
S.     Ambrosius,  filius  Hugonis  Wilks,  sepultus  xxiii  Dec. 
S.     Gregorius,  filius   dicti  Hugonis  Wilks,  sepultus  xxvii 

Dec. 
S.     Agnes,  filia  Willielmi  Fletcher,  sepulta  xx  Jan. 
S.     Arthurus,  filius  Johannis  Scheeffe,  sepultus  xv  Jan. 
B.     Georgius,  filius  Willelmi  Wodyer,  baptizatus  viii  Feb. 
B.  &  S.     Maria,  filia  Johannis  Haynes,  baptizata  et  sepulta 

XX  Feb. 
S.     Johannes  Hurton,  sepultus  fuit  xxvi  Feb. 
B.     Rogerus,  filius  Thomse  Dey,  baptizatus  vii  Marcii. 
B.     Georgius,  filius  Johannis  Hopper,  baptizatus  vii  Marcii. 
S.     David  Jeffre  Presbiter,  sepultus  viii  Marcii. 
B.     Sara,  filia  Willelmi  Austen,  baptizata  xii  Marcii. 
S.     Laurentius,    sepultus    die    Dominica    Ramispalmarum 

(Palm  Sunday). 
S.     Joanna,  uxor  Johannis  Scheeffe,  sepulta  xxii  Marcii. 
S.     Mildreda,  filia  dicti,  Johannis  Scheeffe,  xxii  Marcii. 
S.     Ricardus  Wright,  sepultus  xxiv.  Marcii. 

A.D.  1559. 
S.     Johannes  Scheeffe,  sepultus  ::xv  Marcii. 
B.     Symon  Symonis  Fidge,  filius,  baptizata  ...  in  albis, 
eodem  die. 


154  HISTORY    OF   BOXLEY. 

B.     Elizabetha,  filia  Willelmi  Collens^  baptizata  fuit  eodem 

die. 
B.     Margeria,  filia  Tliomse  Mabisden,^  baptizata  xx  Apr. 
M.    Matrimonium  solemnizatum  fuit  inter  Thomam  Gynk 

et  Elizabetlaam  Dudsoii,  xxvi  Apr. 
B.     ThomaSj  filius  Browne  (sic),  in  festo  Ascensionis. 
S.     Alicia,  filia  viduee  Pratt,  sepulta  vii  Maii. 
S.     Johanna,  uxor  Thomas  Hurste,  sepulta  fuit  x  Maii. 
B.     Thomas,  f.  Alexandri  Henaker,  bapt.  x  Maii. 
B.     Benedicta,  f .  Willelmi  Ger,  bapt.  xv  Maii. 
S.     Rogerus,  f.  Thomse  Dey,  sep.  xxx  Maii. 
B.     Lodowicus,  f.  Edwardi  Barton,  bapt.  xii  Junii. 
S.     Joanna  Hawsnod,  vidua,  sep.  xx  Junii. 
S.     Joanna,  f.  Willelmi  Lorkyn,  sept,  xxv  Junii. 
M.    Matrimonium    solemnizatum    fuit     inter    Willelmum 

Packe  &  Margeriam  Burbage,  iii  Julii. 
S.     Lodowicus  Goldsmith,  sep.  vii  Julii. 
B.     Georgius,  f.  Thomge  Lewis,  bapt.  ix  Julii. 

B.     Johannes  Charpe,  f bapt.  xvi  Julii. 

B.     Ricardus,  f.  Roberti  Tyton,  bapt.  die  S'ti  Jacobi. 

S.     Elizabetha,  f.  Johannis  Gryffyke,  sep.  iii  Sept. 

M.     Matrimonium     solemnizatum    fuit    eodem    die    inter 

Johannem  Heethe  &  Johannam  Fletcher. 
B.     Alisia,  f.  Johannis  Dunkyn,  bapt.  x  Sept. 
B.     Maria,  f.  Willelmi  Fletcher,  bapt.  eodem  die. 
S.     Alisia,  f.  Thomae  Morgan,  sep.  ii  Dec.  (?  Oct.) 
M.     Matrimonium    solemnizatum      fuit    inter    Clementum 

Monyfylde  &  Katerinam  Bircher,  ix  Oct. 
B.     Willelmus,  f.  Thomge  Hawsnode,  bapt.  i.  Nov. 
B.     Willelmus,  f.  Johannis  Burbage,  jun.,  bapt.  v.  Nov. 

1  Probably  an  early  form  of  Maplesden,  a  family  of  some   importance  in 
Maidstone. 


THE   REGISTERS.  155 

The   foregoing^  being   exact  transcripts  of  the  original 
entries  in  the  Register,  will  suffice  to  explain  the  unusual 
arrangement  alluded  to  above.     In  the  subsequent  extracts 
the    more    ordinary   mode    of    placing     the    date     at    the 
beginning    of   the    line  has  been   adopted ;  and   only  the 
names  belonging  to  the  leading  families,  or  those  who  are 
supposed  to  have  owned  the  principal  estates  in  the  parish, 
according  to  Philipott,  Hasted,  and  other  writers,  and  the 
following  abbreviations  have  been  used  :  /.  for  Jilius,  son 
or    for  filia,    daughter ;    bajjt.    for   baptizatus    (baptized) 
matrim  solemn,  for  inatrimonium  solemnizatum  (married) 
and  Sep.  for  sepuUus  (buried.) 

The  names  which  occur  the  most  frequently  in  the 
earlier  pages  and  probably  represent  the  yeomen,  farmers 
and  labouring  classes,  are  :  Scheefe,  Dunkyn,  Lorkyn, 
Grylfyke,  Hawsnode,  Collens  (or  Colly ns),  Treves,  Gold- 
smythe,  Cressyke,  Bassocke,  Tylden,  Burbage,  &c. 
The  Burbages,  judging  from  their  Wills  in  the  Canterbury 
Consistory  Court,  must  have  been  men  of  some  substance 
and  position  in  the  parish.^ 

1559.  Matrimon.     solemn,     inter    Johannem     Pulter     & 

Elenoram  Webb,  xiii  Jan. 
Elizabeth,  uxor  Willelmi  Hartrope,  sep.  xv  Jan. 
Matrimon.    solemn,    inter    Johannem    Bassocke    & 

Isotam  Roberts,  x  Feb. 

1560.  Alicia,  uxor  Johannis  Style,  sep.  xv  Apr. 
Thomas,  f.  Johannis  Style,  sep.  xxix  Apr. 
Agnes,  f.  Roberti  Hartrige,^  bapt.  xv  June. 
Matrimon.    solemn,   inter  Willielmum  Hartrope  & 

Johannam  Fidge,  xi  Aug. 

^  Is  it  possible  tliat  Richard  Burbage,  the  contemporary  and  theatrical 
colleague  of  Shakespeare,  was  of  this  family  ? 

'^  The  name  still  has  representatives  in  the  parish. 


156  HISTOEY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1560.  Johannes,  f.  Johannis  Bassocke,  bapt.  xviii  Aug. 
Matrimon.    solemn,    inter   Willielmum    Beaclie    & 

Aliciam  Gose,  xxi  Sept. 
Matrimon.    solemn,     inter    Willielmum     Bened     & 

Marianam  Wyat,  xx  Jan. 
Thomas,   f.   Launceloti   Tybold,   bapt.   viiii    Marc.^ 

sep.  V  Apr. 

1561.  Anna  Mason,  vidua,  sep.  xxii  ^laii. 
Johannes,  f.  Willielmi  Fletcher,  bapt.  xiii  Dec. 
Matrimon.     solemn,    inter     Eicardum     Gryffin     & 

Margeriam  Mason,  xviii  Jan. 
Willielmus,  f.  Johannis  Style,  bapt.  i  Feb. 
Elizabetha,  f .  Johannis  Burbege,  bapt.  i  Feb. 

1562.  Elizabetha,  f.  Willielmi  Bened,  bapt.  xix  Apr. 
July    iv.,    Matrim.     solemnizat.      inter     Davidem 

Somner^  et  Aliciam  Reve. 
Johanna,  f.  Launceloti  Tybold,  bapt.  xxiii  Oct. 
Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Johannem  Style  &  Aliziam 

Bryce,  xiii  Jan. 

1563.  Johannes  Cryssicke,  paterfamilias,  sep.  xviii  Sept. 
Launcelotus  Tybold,  paterfamilias,  sep.  x  Nov. 
Mathia,  uxor  Thomte  Vicarye,'-  sep.  ix  Marc. 

1564.  Alicia,  f.  Johannis  Wylson,  sep.  xv  Aug. 
Elizabetha,  f.  Johannis  Wylson,  sep.  xxvii  Aug. 
Johannes    Wilson,    Rosa    uxor    ejus,   ac   Robertus, 

f,  dicti  Johannis  Wilson,  sep.  xxix  Aug. 

1  Sometimes  spelt  Sumner. 

2  Thomas  Vicary,  or  Vicars,  in  his  "Will  describes  his  house  as  being  ' '  next 
Boxeley  Churche."  His  connection  with  Boxley  may  be  tlius  accounted  for  : 
' '  He  was  at  first  a  meane  practitioner  in  Maidstone,  until  he  was  advanced 
for  curing  Henry  VIII. 's  sore  legge,"  when  the  King  g.^anted  him  a  lease  of 
some  of  the  Abbey  lands,  as  also  of  the  tythes  and  glebe  land  of  the  Rectory, 
and  made  him  Bailiff  of  the  Manor  of  Boxley.  Will  in  Somerset  House, 
Streak,  f.  10.     Manningham's  X*iary,  p.  51.     Hasted's  Z^e?i<,  iv.,  350. 


THE   REGISTERS.  157 

1564.  Abrahamus,  f .  Johannis  Burbage,  jun.,  bapt.  iii  Dec. 

1565.  iVlicia^  f.  Joliannis  Bassocke^  bapt.  xxiii  June. 

1566.  Rogerus  Jones^  quondam  incumbens  hujus  parochiee, 

sep.  XV  Aug'. 

1569.  Jana  Thom^e  Vicaiye,  f.^  bapt.  xv  Jan. 

1570.  Margareta  Tliomge  Yicary,  f.,  sep.  xx  Apr. 

1571.  Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Robertum  Bruar^  &  Mariam 

Gierke,  xxix  Oct. 

1572.  Jacobus    Robert!     Bruar,    bapt.    xvi     Nov.,     sep. 

xxviii  Dec. 

1574.  Jana  Tbomaa  Ouglye,^  filia,  bapt.  xxviii  Marc. 

1575.  Matrimon.    solemn,   inter  Johannem    Hartridge    & 

Johannam  Burbage,  xi  Apr. 

1576.  Ricardus  Tomyow,^  armiger,  sep.  xii  June. 
Thomas  Roberti  Bruer,  f.,  bapt.  xxi  Sept. 

1577.  Richordus  Ricliardi  Tylden,  f.  bapt.  x  Nov. 

1578.  Matrim.  solemn,  inter  Joseplium  Style   et  Annam 

Tylden.  xxix  Julii. 

1579.  Elena  Roberti  Bruer,  f.  bapt.  Dec.  xiii,  sep.  xxii. 

1580.  Katerina  Baker,  de  Allington  D'na  sep.  xxiv  Julii. 

1581.  Willielmus  Roberti  Bruer,  f.,  bapt.  viii.  Oct. 
Thomas  Johannis  Fielde,  f.,  sep.  iv  Dec. 
Johannes  Johannis  Fielde,  f.,  sep.  xxviii  Dec. 
Georgius  Johannis  Fielde,  f.,  xi  Jan. 

Maria  Walteri  Chamnes,*  f .,  bapt.  xvii  Marc. 

1582.  Henricus  Fisher,  generosus,  sep.  ix  Oct. 

1  This  name  passed  through  several  forms,  Bruar,  Bruer,  and  eventually 
Brewer.  The  family  aj^pears  to  have  originally  held  a  small  manor  called 
"  Ovenhill,"  and  afterwards  "  The  Park." 

"  The  Ongley  family  the  owned  Vinter's  (see  page  5). 

^  A  description  of  the  memorial  brass,  and  of  the  difficulty  of  decyphering 
the  surname,  (which  is  here  cleared  up,)  is  given  on  pp.  116,  117. 

•*  The  Chamneys,  or  Champneys,  family  rented  Vintner's  of  them  for  some 
years  (see  page  112). 


158  HISTOEy   OF   BOXLEY. 

1582.  Maria  Walter!  Chamnes,  f.,  bapt.  xvii  Marc. 

1583.  Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Thomas  Smythe  &  Mariam 

Fletcher^  ii  Junii. 
Willielmus  Chamnes,  paterfamilias^    sep.  xi  Marc. 
Johanna    Johannis     Kenet^    Hybernici,    f.,    bapt. 

xxiii  Oct. 

1584.  Elena  Roberti  Bruer,  f.,  bapt.  xiii.,  sep.  xxi  Sept. 
Maria  Roberti  Bruer,  uxor,  sep.  xxix  Sept. 
Henricus  Walteri  Chamnes,  f.,  bapt.  xxiii  Feb. 

1585.  Thomas  Thomge  Fisher,  f.,  bapt.  xxv  Julii. 
Matrimon.    solemn,  inter  Johannem   Childe,   verbi 

Dei  ministrum,  &  Annam  Whetly,  xv  Sept. 
Elena  Stephani  Yicarye,  bapt.  xviii  Nov. 
Ricardus  Roberti  Bruer,  f.,  bapt.  ii  Jan. 

1586.  Elizabetha  Thomas  Fletcher,  f.,  bapt.  iii  Julii. 

1587.  Henricus  Thomse  Rumuye,  f.,  bapt.  xxv  Jan. 
Johannes  Payiant,  paterfamilias,  sep.  ii  June. 
Johannes  Walteri  Chamnes,  sep.  xvi  Sept. 
Johannes  Stephani  Vicarye,  f.,  bapt.  xxiii  Sept. 

1588.  Willielmus  Hartroppe,  paterfamilias,  sep.  xxix  Aug. 
Elizabetha  Thomse  Fisher,  f.,  bapt.  viii  Sept. 
Johannes  Walteri  Champnes,  f.,  bapt.  xviii  Marc. 

1589.  Philippus   Hilles,   prius   Incumbens  hujus  ecclesife 

de  Boxlye,  sep.  xxi  Junii.     Gui  successi  Georgius 

Gase,  muUum  in  utilis  Xti  servus. 
Willielmus  Marmionis  Haselwod,  f.,  bapt.  i  Sept. 
Elizabetha  Roberti  Bruer,  uxor,  sep.  xiv  Dec. 

1590.  Walterus  Walteri  Chamnes,  f.,  bapt.  xxiii  Aug. 
Edwardus  Wyat,^  generosus,  sep.  xxvt  Nov. 

^  A  younger  son  of  the  second  Sir  Thomas,  to  whom  Queen  Elizabeth 
had  granted  a  portion  of  the  Abbey  lands  (see  page  13).  His  Will  (Archd. 
Court,  Cant,  Lake,  414)  was  proved  by  the  Vicar,  George  Case. 


THE  REGISTERS.  159 

1590.  Matrimon.    solemn,    inter     Walterum    Streine    & 

Joisam  Tylden^  xv  Feb. 

1591.  Johannes  Thomte  Fisher,  f.,  bapt.  xxv  Apr. 
Paukilus  Georgii  Case,  f.,  a  partu,  sep.  die  Magni 

Marty  ris.^ 
Benedicta  Willielmi  Mason,  uxor,  sep.  xxx  Sept. 
Johannes  Roberti  Brewer,  f.,  bapt.  xix.  Dec. 

1592.  Matrimon.     solemn,    inter    Willielmum    Mason    & 

Ag-netem  Walker,  viduam,  xxviii  Oct. 

1593.  Johannes  Georgii  Case,  Ministri  de  Boxlye,  bapt. 

xxx  Maii. 
Johanna    Kenerston    de    Frensbery,    sep.    x   Apr. 

1594.  Jana  Thomas  Fisher,  f.,  bapt.  iv.  Aug. 

Agnes   Willielmi   Mason,   uxor,   sep.    (de    plague)- 

XV  Sept. 
Elizabeth  Thomse  Fisher,  f.,  sep.  (de  pi.)  iv  Oct. 
Stephanus  Lorkin,  puer,  sep.  (per  pi.)  eodem  die. 
Johannes  Tlioma)  Fisher,  f.,  sep.  (de  pi.)  v  Oct. 
Jana  dicti  Thomte,  f.,  sep.  (de  pi.)  viii  Oct. 
Thomas  Thomte  Fisher,  f.  sep.  (de  pi.)  xvi  Oct. 
Robertus   Stringer,  claviger  ecclesite,  sep.   (de  pi.) 

xxviii  Oct. 

1595.  Katerina  f.  Georgii  Case,  ministri  de  Boxly,  bapt. 

XX  Junii. 
Willielmus  Nicholai  Forteschue,  f.,  xxi  Julii. 
Francisca  Timothei  Hawte,  f .,  bapt.  xiiii  Sept. 
Johannes  Thomas  Fisher  f .,  bapt.  xii  Oct. 

^  Festival  of  S.  Magnus  the  Martyr,  August  xix. 

'  What  is  here  called  "  the  Plague"  could  have  been  little  more  than  a 
local  epidemic,  for  no  mention  of  it  occurs  in  any  general  history  of  the  time. 
And  of  eleven  deaths  here  registered  as  occurring  between  October  and 
December,  no  less  than  six  were  members  of  one  family,  the  Fishers. 


160  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1595.  Ellis  Gwinne,  Curatns,  extravngans  post  ehrietatem 
malleolo  percussus  a  Thomce  Kemslye,  sep.  vii  Nov., 
(added  to  this  in  G-reek  cliaracters)  ^ 

'Ota  T  'avrjp  pe^ot  tolov  tcAos   avTov  LKavoi^ 
Katerina  Willielmi  Webb,  f.,  bapt.  xii  Dec. 

1596.  Willielmus  Roberti  Austen,  f.,  bapt.  iii,  sep.  v  Sept. 

1597.  Gwillielmus  Baynliam,  armiger,  sep.  xxiii  Oct. 
Matrimon.    solemn,    inter    Edwardum    Batherst    & 

Nazaretum  Leuson  (Leveson),  xxviii  Dec. 

1598.  Thomas  GTeorgii  Case,  Ministri  de  Boxlye,  f.,  bapt. 

XX  Aug. 
Matrimon.    solemn,    inter    Willielmum    Allen,    de 

Westfarlye    Ministrum,     &    Mariam    Bromston, 

ii  Oct. 
Thomas   Weaver,  adoJescens  lapsus  vacca  succussus 

et  coIUsus  interiit^  et  sep.  fuit  xxi  Dec. 

1599.  Maria  Willielmi  Cutts,^  f.,  bapt.  xviii  Oct. 

1600.  Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Thomam  Haule  &  Annam 

Walter,  xxx  Marc. 
Theophilus  Theophili  Allen,  f.,  bapt.  xxx  Marc. 
Alicia,  f.  Stephani  Hartroppe,  xix  Maii. 
Thomas  Fisher,  sep.  xxix  Aug. 

Johanna,  f.  Walteri  Champen  (sic),  bapt.  xviii  Oct. 
Agnes,  f.  Georgii  Case,  presb',  bapt.  xviii  Jan. 

^  Ellis  Gwinne,  ' '  wanderincj  about  in  a  state  of  drunkenness,  was  knocked 
down  with  a  mallet  by  Thomas  Kemslye. " 

"  "Such  an  end  comes  to  the  man  who  adopts  such  courses." 

^  "  A  young  man,  who  died  from  being  gored  and  tossed  by  a  cow." 

*  Dr.  Cutts  received  the  grant  of  Vinter's  from  the  Queen,  on  its  being 
confiscated  from  Sir  Henry  Isley,  of  Sundridge.  in  consequence  of  his  being 
concerned  in  Wiat's  Rebellion.  (Hasted,  iv.,  342.)  His  elder  brother.  Sir 
Henry  Cutts,  lived  at  Bimbury,  in  Thornham  ;  the  North  Transept  in  the 
Thornham  Parish  Church  is  still  known  as  Cutts's  Chapel,  or  Chantry. 


THE   REGISTERS  161 

1601.  Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  William  Kerryn  &  Marga- 

retam  Fisher,  viduam,  xi  Maii. 
Fx-ancisca  Thomas  Haule,  f„  bapt.  xxi  Junii. 
Thomas,  f.  Georgii  Allen,  bapt.  xx  Jan. 

1602.  Anna  Willielmi  Cutts,  f.,  bapt.  i  Julii. 
Johannes  Cutts,  generosus,  sep.  xvi  Oct. 

1603.  Thomas  Tliomte  Haule,  f.,  bapt.  Marc.  vi. 

[Uefjni  Jdcohi,  Dei  Gralia  Anrjlice,  Francice,  et  Hihernice, 
lieyis  priino,  Scotice  36,  Quod  felic  ctfaiistnm  sit.) 

Anna  Willielmi  Cutis,  uxor  religiosa,  sep.  xviii  Julii. 
Barbara  Willielmi  Cutts,  f.,  bapt.  eodem  die. 
Lyddia    Georgii    Case,    de    Boxley    Ministeri,     f., 
bapt.  XXV  Oct. 
(Testibus  Geo.  Best,  Henrico  Webb,  Jana  Wyatt, 
Cecilia  Wyat.) 
Sara  Willielmi  Allen,  f.,  sep.  xxi  Dec. 
Francisca  Ferdinandi  S'ta  Cecilie,^  f .,  bapt.  viii  Jan. 
Thomas  Georgii  Wyat,  Armigeri,  f.,  bapt.  iv  Marc. 

1604.  Johannes  Feilde,  paterfamilias,  sept,  xviii  Junii 
Mat.    solemn,   ex  licentia    inter   Annam    Knowles, 

tunc  tempore  commorantem  in  parochia  de 
Boxlye,  &  Nicholaum  Bennet,  de  Chatham,  per 
Rectorem  S^te  Marie  Bredman,  in  civitate 
Cantuariensi,  xvii  Feb. 

1605.  Matr.  solemn,  inter  Johannem  Whatman  &  Joisam 

Peene,  xx  Oct. 
Georgius,    f.,   Chaveleri    Mackett    (alias    Marcott), 
bapt.  xvi  Marc. 

^  Probably  a  member  of  the  family  known    by  the   name  of  Sautaoilia, 
which  early  in  the  17th  Century  had  settled    in    Boxley.     See   Leveson- 
Gower's  Extracts  from  the  Boxley  llcghters  ;  Genealogut,  New  Series,  vol.  i. 
M 


162  HISTORY    OF    BOXLEY. 

1606.  Willielmus    Stocke,   collisu   calcis   eii'osi    percussus 

mort.  et,  sept,  v  Aug. 
Ricarclus  Tylden^  paterfamilias,  sept,  xxix  Oct. 
Matr.   solemn,  inter   Johannem   Kember  &  Janam 

Goldsmith,  i  Dec. 
Domina  Maria  D'ni  Cavaleri  Maykott  (alias  Mac- 

wortli),  militis  uxor,  sept,  xxx  Dec. 

1607.  Georgius  Joliannis  Kember,  f.,  bapt.  xix  July. 
Repent  Stephani  Beeching,  f.,  bapt.  &  sept,  iii  Oct. 

1608.  Katlierina  Wyat,  virgo,  sep.  May  10. 

(On  whose  death  the  Vicar  penned  the  following  metrical  Epitaph  :) 
"  Quam  Fasti  infesti  !  nee  norunt  parcere  Parcse  ! 
Mors  mordax  !  quovis  cteca  sepulchra  loco  ! 
Qnam  bene  te  nostris  (Katerina  Viatta)  Registris 

Expunxisse  velim,  si  modo  Fata  velint ! 
Sed  sic  certa  Dei  constat  sententia  Surami 

Crimine  quae  nata  est,  Morte  raetenda,  seges. 

Qnin  metat  ipsa  sua  resecandaque  tempore  falce, 

Namque  Dei  Vox  est :  Mors  ego  mortis  ero." 

(Of  these  lines  he  also  gives  in  the  last  page  of  the  Register  the  following 
English  translation  :) 

"Unhappy  Rolls,  and  yon,  more  stubborn  Fates, 

Thou  stinging  Death,  and  Graves  on  every  hand, 
How  well  coulde  I  (fayre  Katherine)  erase  these  dates, 

Yf  Destinyes  my  wishe  did  not  withstand  ; 
But  now,  syth  thus  it  stands  with  God's  decree, 

That  what  in  synne  is  sowne  must  downe  by  death, 
It  skyls  not,  let  hym  on,  and  wee  shall  see 

Hymself  cutt  downe  by  hym  that  stops  Death's  breath." 

Geo.  Case. 

Elizabetlia  Joliannis  Whatman,  f.,  bapt.  May  16. 
Matr.   solemn,   inter  Willielmum  Tylden   &    Mari- 

anam  Hartrop,  May  31. 
Matr.  solemn,  inter  Johannem  Pylgram  &  Abigalem 

Case,  Dec.  7. 

1609.  Roberlus  Henmarsh,  casu  intei^ens,  sept.  Dec.  30. 

{Sic  VitcB  incerta  est  hora  necisque  luce.) 


THE   REGISTERS.  163 

1 609.  Matr.  solemn.  Ricliarclnm  Bradby  &  Aliciam  Covert. 

Feb.  6. 

1610.  Elizabetha,  Walter!  Covert,  f.,  bapt.  March  10. 
Ann,  Dorothea  Johannis  Whatman,  f.,  bapt.  Apr.  7. 

On  a  hiter  page  these  lines  are  introduced  under  the 
date  1623,  immediately  after  those  on  Hellena  (Wyat),  the 
wife  of  John  Finch  ;  but  here  inserted  as  referring  to  Anna 
and  Katherina  Wyat.^ 

1611.  Robertus  Brewer,  generosus,  sept.  June  15. 
Anna,  Georgii  Wyatt,^  generosi,  f.,  sep.  7  Sept. 

Prosopopeia  Katherinne  Georgii  Wyatt  filire  ad  Annam  sororem  suam  inter 
niortuas  : 

Krith.        Anna  Soror  !     Quid  non  vetat  umbras  esse  suorum 
loquitur.      Permemores  ?  animisve  aliquem  post  funera  sensum  ? 

Die,  age  ;  qute  subiti  a  terris  tibi  causa  recessus  ? 
Anna         Tune,  soror,  rogitas  quum  sis  mihi  prtemia  factis  1 
rcspunilit.     Dicam  equidem,  (ac  meminisse  potes)  quam  Mundus  ab  omni 

Parte  malis  teritur.     Nulla  est  constantia.     Dictis 

Nulla  fides.     Etiam  lapsa  est  dilectio  veri. 

Auri  sacra  fames,  homicoedia,  furta,  libido, 

Ebrietas,  luxus,  lascinia,  jurgia,  fraudes, 

Hsec  studia  et  mores  populis  sunt  omnibus  uni.  (?) 

Neve  nimis  recto  moveamur  tramite  vitie. 

Sic  visum  est  summo  cursum  abbreviare  parenti. 

Et,  (quoniam  carne  exulis  divinior  aura 

Influit)  esse  reor  tempus  jam  jamque  futurum, 

Quo  nostram  perbibent  prtegnantem  fata  sororem, 

Conjugio  junctam  perbonesto  buc  tendere  gressum. 

Et  nisi  me  Parcre  per  vana  augui-e  ludant. 

Hand  aberit  tempus  post  tertia  lustra  propinquum. 

Quo  pater  ipse  diem  senio  confectus  obibit, 

Hucque  duos  teiiera  natos  ifitate  reducet, 

Interea  mrestos  bonitas  Divina  parentes 

Dum  nos  invisant  provecta  Eietate  beabit. 

Pastorali  affectu  scripsit,  Geo.  Case,  Boxl.,  Vicar. 

1  Wbo  had  died  May  10th,  1603  (see  preceding  page). 


164  HISTORY   OF    BOXLEY. 

1612.  Nicliolaus  Echvardi  Boglierst,  i.,  bapt.  Nov.  30. 

1613.  Matrimon     solemn,     inter     Joliannem     Vicary    & 

Joliannam  Atkin^  ^"g-  24. 
Anna  Walter!  Covert,  f.,  bapt.  5  Sept. 
Samuel  Johannis  Vicare,  f .,  bapt.  ix  Jan. 

1614.  Ruth  Johannis  Whatman,  f.,  bapt.  3  April. 
Johannes  Hartredge,  mortuus  in  Boxley,  sep.  apud 

Bearsted,  7  May. 
Margareta  Vicarye,  vidua,  sep.  10  May. 
Jana,  Edwardi  Bogherst  uxor,  sep.  10  June. 
Thomas  ejusdem  Edwardi,  f.,  bapt.  eodem  die. 
Elizabetha,  uxor  Willielmi  Covert,  sep.  July  14. 
Cecillia  Wyatt,  vidua,  sep.  July  20. 

1615.  Christiana  Johannis  Brewer,  f.,  29  Apr. 
Walterus  Walteri  Covert,  f.,  bapt.  June  29. 
Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Edwardum  Bust. 

&  Mariam  Covert,  ex  lie.  de  Archivis,  12  Sept. 

Hellena  Johannis  Vicary e,  f.,  bapt.  12  Nov. 

Johannis  Norris  &       ~)  ,  .  fille  19  Jan. 

V  sepulti  -) 
Elizabetha,  uxor  ejus  J  Lhasc  25  Jan. 

1616.  Matrimon.    solemn,    inter    Edwardum  Cutbushe  & 

Janam  Amherst,  12  Aug. 
Elizabetha  Johannis  Brewer,  gen.,  bapt.  xv.  Aug. 

1617.  Maria  Clarke,  gen.,  vidua  sep.  12  Aug. 
Anna  Johannis  Whatman,  f.,  bapt.  Sept.  7. 
Johanna  Bogherst,  vidua  sep.  Sept.  14. 
Francisca  Johannis  Brewer,  f.,  bapt.  March  16. 

1618.  Thomas  Walteri  ^overt,  f.,  bapt.  July  30. 
Christopherus  Johannis  Vicar}^,  f.,  bapt.  Nov.  8. 
Francisca  Johannis  Case,  presbyteri,  f.,  March  7. 

1619.  Henricug  Francisci  Wiatt,  militis,  f.,  bapt.  Apr.  4. 
Martha  Johannis  Brewer,  f.,  bapt.  June  24. 


THE   REGISTERS.  165 

1619.  Abrahamus  Jacobi  Whatman^  f.^  bapt.  ISTov.  28. 
Willielmus    Sliawe,    celebs,    qui    testameiito   siio    in 
testimonium  conreysiouis  suce  a   'jmpislicis   evvovihns 
Winefrcdce,   Georgii  Case,   tie   Boxlece  Ministri,  coii- 

jiirji,  ct  monitrici  suce,  xx.  soliihs  legavit,  sepidtas  fuit, 
Dec.  3. 

Matrimon.     solemn,     inter    Tliomam    Billingsly     a 
Katlierinam  Case^  Feb.  22. 

1620.  Willielmus  Johannis  Whatman,  i.,  bapt.  June  15. 
Joliannes  Walteri  Covert,  armigeri,  f .,  bapt.  June  15. 
Matrimon.    solemn,    inter.   Ed-\vardum   Boglierst  & 

Katherinam  Fearnes,  July  25. 
Georgius  Francisci  Wyat,  militis,  f.,  bapt.  Sept.  8. 
Maria  Johannis  Brewer,  armigeri,  f.,  bapt.  Dec.  8. 

1621.  Joyse  Johannis  Whatman,  uxor,  sep.  Jan.  31. 
Davyd  Johannis  Vicary,  f.,  bapt.  Feb.  18. 
Robertus  Willielmi  Wyatt,  f.,  bapt.  July  22. 

1622.  Francisca  Roberti  Brewer,  geuerosa  vidua  sepulta 

fuit,  Nov.  16. 

"  Tu  quoque  jam  nostris  ades  inscribenda  Registris, 
Sancta,  pudica,  pia,  et  generosis  morihus  aucta, 
Francisca,  egregiis  multuin  memorabilis  actis, 
Sive  fidem  seu  quis  benefacta  repandere  teiitat : 
At  quia  jam  vivis  populorum  iiiserta  sepulcliris, 
(Cordibus  es  etenim)  tua  funera  viva  relinquo, 
Atque  animam  ad  superos  volitantem  meute  revise." 

1622.  Alicia  Tilden,  vidua  honesta,  obstitrix,  sep.  Jan.  13. 

(A  valued  midwife,  whose  merits  are  thus  commemorated  :) 
"  Tuque  etiam  nobis  conjuncta  fidelibus  actis, 
Infantum  in  vita  niultorum  nata  sakiti, 
Hos  cape  versiculos  special  is  pignus  amoris, 
Dum  liber  hie  durat,  Tildeni  casta  relicta. " 

Anna  Jacobi  Whatman,  f.,  bapt.  Sept.  8. 

1623.  Thomas  .Johannis  Brewer,  armigoi'i,  f.,  1iapt.  Aug,  1. 


166  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1623.     Hellena  (Wyatt),  uxor  Johannis  Finch,  sep.  Dec.  7. 

"  Tertia  jam  nostris  prodit  memoranda  Eegistris 
Wyatto  geiiita,  et  Finclio  modo  nupta,  soronim  ; 
Hellena  dicta  quidem,  tam toque  venustior  ilia, 
Quam  Graife  celebrant  mnlto  splendore  Camenre, 
Quanto  animre  superant  qure  sunt  in  corpore  dotes, 
Chasta,  pudica,  pia,  et  generosis  moribns  aucta, 
Qualera  (si  parilem)  vix  tetas  dexteriorem 
Dotibus  ingenii  et  pnrpatiie  Religionis 
Ulla  tulit,  I'eretve  :  tute  decus  (inclyta)  stirpis 
Cujiis  dam  placido  requiescunt  membra  sepulchre, 
lUe  petit  superum  generosus  spiritus  arces." 

Johannes  Johannis  Vicarj^,  f.,  bapt.  Dec  22. 

Honora  Alexaudri  Sevellan  de  S'to  Georgio  South- 

wark,  uxor,  sep.  Dec.  23. 

Vera  D'i  Willielmi  Tufton,^  equitis,  i.,  sep.  23  Jan. 

1024.     Maria  Synionis  Allen,  f.,  bapt.  29  March. 

Elenora  Henrici  Wiat,  generosi,  f.,  bapt.  1  Sept. 

"^  Georgius  Wyatt,"  armiger,  sep.  1  Sept. 

Epitaphium  per  Prosopopeiam  ad  filias  praemortuas  : 

"  Ite,  mese,  quondam  felicia  pignora,  Nataj, 
Quo  Deus  et  verum  melior  natura  vocarit, 
Ite,  sequor.     Quid  nunc  juvat  hiis  subsistere  terris  ? 
Hiis  ?  ulii  plena  malis  sunt  omnia  ;  Plena  laborum, 
Nallaque  justitiae,  pietatis  nulla  cupido. 
Bella,  ubique  anna,  minse,  ac  ubi  pullulat  hsieresis  omuis, 
Jurgia,  furta,  doli,  credes,  vis,  atque  rapinte, 
Lites  continuiB  ;  et  quse  sunt  inimica  quieti, 
Luxus  et  ebrietas,  et  amor  sceleratus  liabendi  ; 
Et  furor,  et  quicquid  studiis  agitatur  iniquis. 
Altera  nam  Babilon,  Egiptus,  Sodoma,  Mundus. 
Quin  agite,  0  !  nati^,  fugiamus  sedibus  istis, 
Quseramusque  solum,  pietas  ubi  sancta  moratur, 
Atque  habitat  tuto  Reverentia  Numinis  alti. 
Sat  nos,  sat  miserse  complevimus  aspera  vitae 

1  The  Tufton  family  owned  Vinter's  from  1623  to  1660.     See  pp.  5,  112. 

^  He  was  the  son  of  the  unfortunate  Sir  Thomas  Wiat,  who  had  been 
been  beheaded  by  Queen  Mary  in  looi.  To  him  Elizabeth  had  restored  the 
Abbey  lands  in  1570.     See  pages  10,  146. 


THE   REGISTEES.  1G7 

"  Munia,  et  innumeras  curanim  trivimus  horas. 
Jam  fidei  falcanda  seges  meriesque  {sic)  laborum. 
Et  pater  et  patri;e  spectanda  est  gloria  iiostrre, 
Fa'lices  igitur  dissutis  corporis  hujus 
Stramiueis  teutis,  qnibus  est  fas  scandere  ccelos. 
Quin  vos,  0  generis  nostri,  michi  delicta  propago, 
Discite  justitiam  mouiti  et  non  temuere  Numen, 
Ut  quaudo  est  vobis  sedes  vertenda,  supremi, 
Proemissis  nobis,  teneatis  gaudia  Regni." 

Henricus  Wiat,  artium  mag'istei'j  et  minister,  sep.  10. 

die  uov ;  annij  uempe  Jau.  1 . 

' '  Siccine  continuos  liictus  causasque  doloris 
Mors  inopina  refers,  cumulasque  sepiilclira  sepulchris, 
Froiite  quidem  senibns,  de  tergo,  ad  versa  juventam  ? 
Non  tibi  sat  rapuisse  patrem,  quern  sancta  senecta, 
Pluriraaque  ornarunt  meliorum  pragmata  reruni  ? 
Non  una  rapuisse  domo  tria  lecta  sororura 
Corpora,  et  exuviis  inatrem  cruciasse  priorum  ? 
Aspera  ni  gnatuin,  divina  ad  mnnera  natum 
Prn?,propere  primo  rapuisses  flore  juventte  ! 
Sed  quid  te  queriniur  ?  vel  quid  tua  jura  moramur, 
Quando  ipsi  artifices  fuimus  sibi  quisque  malorum  ? 
Nostra  tuis  aciem,  yirusque  errata  sagitlis 
Attribuere  :  tamen  quum  sit  raedicina  parata 
Sanguine  salvinci  et  raediantis  ad  omnia  Ch-i'isti, 
Quid  scelerata  miiias,  vel  quid  inania  spicula  jactas  ? 
Guttula  nam  tanti  sanant  tua  vulnera  lustri, 
Hoc  igitur  requiescit  liumi  subtegmine  corpus  ; 
Spiritus  ceternum  faciet  cum  Numine  Festum." 

1624.     Jana  Joliaimis  Brewer,  armigeri,  f.,  bapt.  Feb.  26. 
Ds.     Henricus     Finclie,     Miles,     Serviens-ad-Jojes 
(Sergeant-at-law),  sep.  Oct.  13. 

"  Dum  fnrit  in  populo  pestisque  luesque  misello, 

Quaerit  et  interios  plebs  (?)  generosa  lares  ; 
Fincbus  eques,  pietatis  amans,  legumque  peritus,-  - 

Boxleie  nostris  sedibus  hospes  adest. 
Multa  ubi  cum  cliaris  solennia  gessit  amicis, 

Jejunis  socius,  letitiisque  comes  ; 
Coi-reptus  febro,  (placuit  sententia  Sumnio) 

Occubat,  et  molli  membra  reponit  liumo. 
Astra  petit  generosa  anima  ;  et  perpn^pete  penna 

Inter  c;eiicolas  fertur  babere  locum." 


168  HISTOEY   OF    BOXLEY. 

The  following  is  liere  inserted  under  date  Jan.  1625  : 
"  In  obitu  lectissimi  juvenis  Thomse  Wyatt  prefati 
Georgii   Wjat  filii  junioris,  qui  obiit  &  sepultus 
fuit    Maydstonii,     die     S'cti     Tliomee     Apostoli, 
memoriale." 

"  Nee  dum  fata  sinimt  calamum  requiescere  ehartis, 

Mortis  ad  imperium  pagina  nulla  vacat. 
Namqiie  tenellus  adhue,  et  prime  flore  juventse 

Wyatto  Thomas  a  genitore  satiis, 
Integer,  et  Iretos  inter  conviva  sodales 

Ut  redit  ad  proprios  (sole  cndente)  lares, 
Lsetliargo,  et  validi  cogente  cupidine  somni, 

Decubuit  lecto,  surgere  nee  valuit. 
Sic  vitfE  instabilis  cursus  ;  Mors  imminet  usque  ; 

Nee  prece  nee  pretio  parcere  dura  so!et. 
Hinc  te  raortalem  genitum  reminiscere,  Lector  : 

Ut  possis  semper  vivere,  disce  mori." 

1626.  Margareta  D.  Willielmi  Tufton,  Militis  et  Baronet, 

f.,  bapt.  Apr.  22. 
Agnes  Walteri  Champen;,  uxor,  sep.  July  9. 
Thomas  Haulti  Wiatt,  generosi,  i.,  bapt.  Oct.  15. 
VElizabetha  Haulti  Wyatt,  uxor,  sep.  Oct.  31. 

Qauhim  viator  siibrafa   barba,   ceralca  tunica,    sep. 
Nov.  23.      (Alexander  Charlton  de  Durham.)  ^ 

1627.  Thomas  Haulti  Wyat,  f.,  sep.  April  10. 
Stephanus     Beeching,     paterfamilias,     inebrietate 

percussus,  Detlinge,  sep.  May  26. 

1628.  Maria  Johannis  Brewer,  Armigeri,  f.,  sep.  Aug.  4. 
Elizabetha  Johannis    Brewer,  Armigeri,  uxor,  sep. 

Aug.  25. 
Epitaphium  Memoriale,  G(eorge)  C(ase)  : 
"  Religiosa  Dei  cultrix,  generosa  Brueri 

Sub  tumulo  hoc  conjux  Elizabetha  jacet  ; 

^  He  was  apparently  unknown  at  the  time  save  by  his  red  beard  and  sky- 
blue  dress,  his  name  being  an  after  insertion. 


THE    REGISTERS.  1G9 

Casta,  piidica,  pia,  et  naturiie  dotibns  aucta, 

Omnibus  una  aiii.-ni  dotibus  aucta  jacet. 
Quid  dixi  ?  jacet  hie  ?  jacet  hac  sub  mole  cadaver  ; 

Divina  meruit  vivere  parte  Deo, 

Et  vivit." 

1628.  Robertus     Johannis    Brewer,    Armigeri,    f.,     sep. 

Dec.  19. 

1629.  Matrimon.     soleiT)n.     inter    Thomam    Cranmer    & 

Mariam  Becket,  Jan.  20. 
Thomas  Friar  de  Leeds,  sep.  Dec.  2. 
Winefreda  Georgii  Case,  hujus  ecclesias  de  Boxley 

vicarii,  uxor,  sepulta  Jan  21.   (Vita3  sute  72,  con- 

]ugii  44.) 
Cujus  liajc  fuerunt  memoriales  lachrimge. 

"  Si  qua  fuit  viva  crelari  marmore  digna 

Fuemina,  si  conjux  conjnge  digna  bono, 
Ta  mea.  tu  conjux  Winefreda,  es  marmore  digna, 

Dignaque  quiB  vivas  peetore  clausa  meo. 
Nulla  tuas  supenivit  enim  (si  par  fuit  nlla) 

Virtntes  animi,  subsequitura  fatis. 
Nam  Maviie  et  Marthas  partes  studiosa  peregit, 

Quod  jdetatis  opus,  sedulitatis  erat. 
Srepe  precata  Deum,  cui  multas  detulit  horas, 

Pro  verbo,  et  populi  pace,  precata  Deum  est. 

(After  some  thirty  more  lines  of  Elegiacs,  he  closes  thus  :) 
Vive  Deo,  terris  indignior  amplius  hospes, 
Inter  Coelicolas  annumerata,  Va!e." 

1630.  Joliannes  Vicary,  sep.  May  23. 

Katerina  Thomas  Fletcher  uxor,  sep.  Dec.  26. 

"  Nee  non  digna  meis  Katerina  notanda  Camcenis 
Fletcheri  conjux  officiosa  venis. 
Utilis  obstitrix,  miserisque  creata  ferendum 

Auxilinm,  fractis  cruribus  atque  manu. 
Ob  quiT3  tam  Christo  tot  tantaque  pritstita  facta  ; 
Cum  Christo  in  ccelis  gloria  parta  fide  est." 


Joanna  Vicary,  vidua,  sep,  Nov.  29. 


170  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1631.  Anna  Hauti  Wyatt  f  ,  bapt.  Feb.  19. 

:^  Anna,  ejusdem  Hauti  Wyatt  uxor,  sep.  Feb.  ult. 

"  Mitis,  ct  ingetiua,  ac  pia  mater,  sedula  imtrix, 
Wyatti  liic  coiijux  officiosa  jauet, 
Casta  puerperio  sic  functa  est  munere  vitfe, 
Pdi'to  sed  ill  ctjelis  jam  meliore  viget." 

Matrimon.  solemn,  inter  Ricliardum  Gouldsmith   & 
Dionisiam  Vicarye,  April  9. 

1632.  Georgius     Case,     nnper      Jiiijns      ecdesice     Pastor 

vii/llantissimus,  sepultus,  July    29. 
Anno  tetatis  suje  72,  Eesidentiee  42. 

(The  poetic  frenzy  seems  to  have  raged  to  the  last.  At  the  end  of  the 
Register  appear  some  Latin  verses  written  by  liim  as  his  Epitaph  for  his  own 
tomb. ) 

Georgii  Case,  hujns  BoxIcb  ecclesiae  pastoris  hoc 
suo  tumnlo  snspensa  tabnla    Epitaphium  a  se  (dum  viveret) 
conseriptum  appnndi  curavit. 
"Casus  in  occasnm  versus  jum  vivere  miindo 

Desinit,  atque  cupit  vivere  (Christe)  tibi, 
Non  ego  delitias  muudi,  non  gaudia  sensi  : 
Immundus  mundus  dura  noverca  fuit. 
Tu  tamen  interea  merces  mihi  (Christe)  hiborans, 

Tu  vit^e  dnctor,  tu  mihi  fautor  eras  ; 
A  te  dependi  materna  parvuhis  alvo, 

Ad  te  jam  red  o,  tu  mihi  dexter  ades. 
Septies  hie  denos  totideni  qui  conferet  annos 
Te  dooui  ;  nune  te  gestio  (Christe)  frui." 

Georgius  Case,  propria  manu  scripsi. 

1633.  Elizabetha  Gulielmi  Cliampnesse,^  f.,  bapt.  Apr.  22. 
Matrimon.  solemn,    inter.  Gulielmum  Hartropp    & 

Saram  Geary,  June  11. 

1634.  Henricus  M'ri  Gulielmi  et  Eliz.  Maddox,  f.,  bapt. 

Aug.  19. 

1635.  Elizabeth,    f.    Gulielmi    &     Eliz.    Chapnes,    bapt. 

May  24. 
Walterus  Walteri  et  Annis  Cliampnes,  sep.  Sept.  2. 
^  Tho  Champneys  family  lived  for  several  generations  at  Vinter's.   Page  112, 


THE   EEGISTERS.  171 

1636.  Margaret  Willielmi  &  Elve  Madockes,  gen.,  bapt. 

March  1. 
Willielmus    D'i    Francisci    Wiat,    militis,    et  D'nee 
Margaretas,  uxoris,  sep.  March  24. 

1637.  Lucia  Nicholai  Crispe,  gen.,  uxoris,  filia  Thonife  et 

Luciae  Henman,  gen.,  sep.  Apl.  13. 
.Jacobus  et  Benjamin  Nicholai  &  Johannas  Madocke, 

bapt.  June  11. 
Maria,    uxor    Henrici    Newman,    filia    Hugonis    et 

Doritheas  Fletcher,  sep.  Aug.  20. 
Georgius  Wiat,  Domini  Francisci  Wiat,  Militis,    & 

Margarets;,  uxoris,  f.,  sep.  Oct.  12. 
Elizabetha,    f.     Magistri    GuHelmi    et    Elizabethge 

Maddox,  bapt.  Mar.  12. 

1638.  Thomas  Newman,  Senex,  sep.  Apr.  6. 

Mr.  Haute  Wyatt,  Vicarius  hujus  parochite,  et 
f.  M'ri  Georgii  Wyatt,  eepultus  fuit  Aug.  1. 

Johannes,  f.  Johannis  &  Cicili^e  Freebodye, 
generosi,  bapt.  Oct.  13. 

Johannes  Prouse,  generosus,  sep.  Nov.  19. 

Eobertus,  f .  Nicholai  Crispe,  generosi,  bapt.  Feb.  1  7. 

Benjamin,  f.  Nicholai  Maddock,  sep.  March  19. 

1639.  Isabella,    f.    Gulielmi    Maddock,    generosi,    bapt. 

Apr.  8. 

1640.  Maria,     f.     Johannis      Zacharit^,     Minister      tunc 

temporis  ibidem,  bapt.  Jan  5. 

1641.  Maria,   f.   Nicolai  Crispe,  generosi,    bapt.   Mar.  2, 

sep.  Apr.  15. 
John  Baker  de  Weavering,  sep.  Sept.  12. 

1642.  Selbius,  f.  Nicolai  Cripse,  bapt  Oct.  16. 

1643.  Rodolphus     Covertus,    f.    Rodolphi    Covert,    bapt. 

March  25. 


172  HISTOEY    OF   BOXLEY. 

1643.  Margareta,    f.   D.   Henrici  Grimeston,  militis,  sep. 

Aug.  29. 
Dorothea,  f.,  Nicolai  Cripse,  bapt.  Nov.  29. 
Georgius    Sandys/  Paetnyuni    Anglornm    sui    secidi 
■  facile  pr in cp'ps,  sep.  Martii  7. 

1644.  -^Domina  Wjat/  sep.  Martii  27. 

Issabella,  f.  Henrici  Grimstou,  Equitis,  sep.  July  6. 
"^Franciscus  Wiat,  Miles,  sep.  Aug.  24. 

1645.  Henricus  Griniston,  Miles,  Sep.  25.^ 

1646.  Jedediali  Haynes/  f.  M'ri  Thomge  Haynes/  Preca- 

toris  Divini  Verbi,  de  Boxle}^,  sep.  April  6. 
Sarah     Haynes/    f.    Thomte     &     Sarah     Haynes, 
Ministri,  2do  anno,  bapt.  Aug.  21. 

1648.  Mr.   Edmund  Austin   &  Mrs.  Maria  Sylam,  matri- 

monio  conjuncti.  May  22. 

1649.  Georgius  Charlton,  f.,   Georgii    et  Jane   Charlton, 

bapt.  March  14. 
1656.     Willielmus  Georgii  &  Anne  Champnisse  {sic.)  f.,bapt. 

Mar.  5. 
1660.     Georgius  Georgii  Champnisse,  bapt.  Apr.  20. 

1662.  Henricus  Georgii   Champnesse   et  Anne,  f.,   bapt. 

Dec.  3. 

1663.  Dorcas  Ongley,''  Vidua,  sep.  Dec.  30. 

1663.  Matrimonium   solemnizatum  inter  Johannen  Boon 

&  Anam,  uxor  ejus  {sic)  Feb.  27. 

1664.  Maria    Georgii    &    Anne    Champuesse,    f.,    bapt. 

Apr.  3. 

1  See  pages  125,  149. 

2  Jane,  widow  of  George  Wyat,  Esq. 
=*  See  page  1 20. 

*  These   entries   are   repeated.      Great   irregularity   in   the   entries   from 
1644-72. 

5  Intruded  into  the  Vicarage  in  1644.     See  page  94. 

*  The  Ongley  family  succeeded  the  Tuftons  at  Vinter's.     See  page  5. 


THE   REGISTERS.  173 

1667.     Ame  Georgii  &  Anne  Champnesse,  f.,  Sept.  2. 

1673.  John  Charlton,  buried  Nov.  29. 
Joseph  Charlton,  buried  March  1  7. 

1674.  Jane,    d.    of    Thomas    &    Frances   Silyard,^    bapt. 

March  26. 
Sarah,  wife  of  Thomas  Haynes,  buried  Sept.  21. 
John  Whatman,  buried  March  5. 

1676.  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Zaretan-  and  Mary  Crofton,  bapt. 

Sept.  17;  buried  Jan.  21. 

1677.  Maria,   d.   of  Edwin  and  Frances  Wiat,  of  Maid- 

stone, sep.  Aug.  1. 
Elizabeth,  d.  of  Thomas  &  Frances  Syliard,  bapt. 
Sept.  20. 

With  the  close  of  the  first  Register  the  more  ordinary 
form  of  entry  commences.  The  Baptisms,  Marriages,  and 
Burials  are  arranged  under  their  respective  heads,  and  are 
so  given  here.  The  metrical  outpourings  which  marked 
the  incumbency  of  George  Case,  and  the  somewhat 
sensational  entries  which  followed,  have  disappeared, 
giving  place  to  the  most  matter-of-fact  records  of  the 
different  events.  The  paucity  of  Marriages,  however, 
during  the  three  quarters  of  a  Centuiy  between  1678  and 
1753,  the  period  comprised  within  the  second  Register,  is 
very  remarkable.  There  were  only  97  recorded  in  all  that 
interval  as  having  taken  place  in  Box  ley  Church,  and  of 
these  33  were  by  Licence,  of  which  the  Licence  Register  at 
Canterbury  explains  that  several  were  merely  "  husband- 

^  Sir  Thomas  Seyliard,  by  virtue  of  liis  marriage  with  Frances  Bosville, 
whose  mother,  Klizabeth,  was  daughter  of  Dame  Jane  Wiat,  the  widow  of  Sir 
Thomas  Wiat  the  Younger,  succeeded  to  the  Abbey  House  Estate.     Page  10. 

-  Zaretan  Crofton  was  at  this  time  Cm-ate,  in  which  character  his  name 
appeared  at  the  foot  of  eacli  page  of  the  Registers. 


174  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

men/'  while  a  few  belonged  to  that  now  apparently  extinct 
yet  honoured  class  of  "Yeomen."  This  will  account  for 
the  very  small  number  of  entries  it  has  been  thought 
desirable  to  extract  under  the  head  of  Marriages. 

BAPTISMS. 

1678.  Aug.  22,  George,  s.  of  George  Charlton  and  Eliza- 

beth uxor. 
Aug.  25,  Sarah,  d.  of    Zaretan  Crofton  and  Mary 

uxor. 
Feb.  27,   Elizabeth,  d.  of  Mr.  John  Wise  &  Eliz. 

uxor. 

1679.  Sept.  3,  Eleanora,  d.  of   Sir   Thomas  Seyliard    & 

Frances  uxor. 

1680.  Aug.  4,  James,  s.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliz. 

uxor. 
Dec.  28,  James,  s.  of  Mr.  John  Wise  &  Eliz.  uxor. 

1681.  Nov.    23,    John,    s.    of    Sir    Thomas    Seyliard    & 

Frances  uxor. 

1683.  Feb.  19,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  & 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1684.  May  9,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Mr.  John  Wise  &  Eliz.  his 

wife. 

1685.  May  22,  Mary,  d.   of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliz. 

his  wife. 

1686.  May   7,   Ann,  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &    Eliz. 

his  wife. 
June  14,  Sarah,  d.  of  Capt.  Gasper  Hicks  &  Judith 
his  wife. 

1687.  Sept.  30,  George,  s.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliz. 

his  wife. 
1687.     Oct.  16,  Gasper,  s.  of  Capt.  Gasper  Hicks  &   Judith 
his  wife. 


THE    REGISTERS.  175 

1688.  Oct.   7,  Jane,  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliza- 

beth his  wife. 

1689.  Sept.    20,    George,    s.  of    Mr.   George   Charlton   & 

Eliz.  his  wife. 

1690.  Sept.   4,   Philadelphia,   d.    Sir  Thomas   Selyard  & 

Margaret  his  wife. 
Dec.  19,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Daniel  Whjte,^  Esq.,  & 
Ann  his  wife. 

1691.  Aug.  2,    Christian,   d.   of  Mr,  George  Charlton  & 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1692.  Aug.  18,  Ann,  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliza- 

beth his  wife. 

1693.  Nov.  11,  Thomas,  s.  of  Sir  Thomas  Taylor-  &  Alicia 

his  wife. 
Feb.  24,  James,  s.  of  Mr.  James  Sherborne  &  Jane 

his  wife. 
Nov.    13,    John,   s.   of    Mr.   George    Charlton    and 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1695.  Jan.   15,    George,   s.    of  Mr.  George   Charlton  and 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 
March  3,  Christian,  d.  of  Mr.  John  Wyvell   (Vicar 
of  Boxly)^  &  Christian  his  wife. 

1696.  July    6,     Elizabeth,     d.    of    Sir    Thomas    Sylyard, 

Baronet,  &  Dame  Eliz.  his  wife. 
March  9,  Meric,  s.  of  Mr.  Theophilus  D.   Langle, 
&  Eliz.  his  wife. 

1697.  July  25,  Jane,  d.   of  Mr.  George  Charlton  &  Eliz. 

his  wife. 

^  Mr.  Daniel  White  bought  Vinter's  of  Sir  Charles  Tufton  (see  pp.  5,  112). 

-  Sir    Thomas   Taylor  purchased  Park  House  (Maidstone)  of  the  Brewer 
family. 

^  Became  Vicar  in  1690  (see  page  94). 


176  HISTOEY  OF  BOXLEY 

1697.  Aug.    18,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Mr.   Charles   Jermyn  & 

Anne  his  wife. 
Oct.   28,  Margaret,   d.   of    Sir  Thomas    Sjliard   & 
Dame  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1698.  Nov.  8,  Jane,  d.  of  Geo.   Charlton,  Gent.,  &  Eliza- 

beth his  wife. 
Jan.  27,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Sir  Thomas  Syliard,  Bart., 
&  Dame  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1700.  July   25,   John,   s.   of   Sir   Tho.   Syliard,  Bart.,   & 

Dame  Elizabeth  his  wife. 
Nov.  11,  Priscilla,  d.  of  Capt.   George  Robinson  & 
Phoebe  his  wife. 

1701.  Aug.   1,  Margaret,  d.  of  Mr.    George   Charlton  & 

Eliz.  his  wife. 
Dec.  11,  George,  s.  of  Capt.   George   Robinson  & 
PhcBbe  his  wife. 

1702.  Feb.  23,  Philadelphia,  d.  of  Daniel  White,  Esq.,  & 

Anne  his  wife. 

1703.  Oct.  8,  Laurentia,  d.   of    Mr.   George    Charlton  & 

Eliz.  his  wife. 

1704.  Feb.    7,  Thomas,  s.  of  John  Sv^unnock  &  Elizabeth 

his  wife. 

1705.  June  8,  Sharlott  (•</'•.),  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton 

&  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1708.  Nov.  17,  Priscilla,  d.  of  Daniel  White,  Esq.,  &  Ann 

his  wife. 

1709.  Dec.   10,  Thomas,  s.  of  Daniel  White,  Esq.,  &  Ann 

his  wife. 
1716.     Sept.  9,  Josiah,  s.  of  Josiah  and  Mary  Pearson,  of 

St.  Martin's  le  Grand. 
1718.     June  11,  William,  s.   of  John   and  Mary  Hall,  of 

West  Walton,  in  Norfolk. 


THE  REGISTERS.  177 

1726.     Apr.  1,  George,   s.   of  Mr.   Peter  Burvill   &    Ann 
his  wife. 
Oct.  27,  Dorotliy-Sarah,   d.  of  Mr.   Mawdistly  and 
Elizabeth  Best. 

1731.  July    26,    Eliza,    d.    of   Mr.    Peter   &   Mrs.    Anne 

Burvill. 

1732.  Nov.  14.  Henry,  s.  of  Mr.  Peter  &  Mrs.  Anne  Burvill. 

1733.  June  10,  James,  s.  of  Thomas  &  Ann  Burvell. 

1741.  Aug.  25,  James,  s.  of   Mr.  James  Whatman  &  Anne 

his  wife. 

1742.  Apr.  21,  William,  sirnamed  Kent,  a  negroe,  born 

in  Guinea,  aged  19  years. 

1743.  June  15,  Frances,  d.  of  William  Champneis,  Esq., 

&  Hannah  his  wife. 

1744.  Oct.  8,  William,  s.  of  Mr.  James  Whatman  &  Anne 

his  wife. 
Feb.  23,  Harriot,  d.  of  William  Champneis,  Esq., 
&  Hannah  his  wife. 

1747.  Aug.  24,  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Mr.  James  Whatman  & 

Anne  his  wife. 

1748.  June  26,  William,  s.  of  William  Lynde  &  Elizabeth 

his  wife. 
1753.     Nov.  22,  Thomas,  s.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,  &  Frances 
his  wife. 

1755.  Jan.    10,  James,  s.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,  &  Frances 

his  wife. 
Aug.    3,    Juliana,    d.    of    George    Burvill,^    CI.,    & 
Juliana  his  wife. 

1756.  Jan.  30,  Frances,  d.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,  &  Frances 

his  wife. 

1757.  Jan.  20,  Frances,  d.   of  George  Burvill,   Clerk,  & 

Juliana  his  wife. 

^  He  was  Curate  of  Boxley  from  1757  to  1775  (see  page  98). 
N 


178  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1757.  May   21,    Sarah,    d.    of   Robert   Polhill,   Clerk,   & 

Melescent  his  wife. 
June  27,  Richard,  s.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,   &  Frances 
his  wife. 

1758.  Jan.    29,    John,    s.    of    George    Burvill,    Clerk,    & 

Juliana  his  wife. 
Sept.  28,  Melescent,  d.  of  Robert  Polhill,  Clerc,  & 

Melescent  his  wife. 
Oct.  26,   John,  s.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,   &  Frances 

his  wife. 

1759.  Feb.    24,    Ann,    d.     of    George    Burvill,    Clerc,    & 

Juliana  his  wife. 
Nov.  20,  George,  s.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,  &  Frances 

his  wife. 
Dec.  22,  Charlotte,  d.  of  George  Burvill,  Clerk,  & 

Juliana  his  wife. 

1760.  Nov.    19,    Frances,    d.    of    James    Best,    Esq.,    & 

Frances  his  wife. 
1762.     Feb.  8,  Dorothy,  d.  of  James  Best,  Esq.,  &  Frances 
his  wife. 

1764.  Apr.    23,    Ann,    d.    of    James    Whatman,   Esq.,   & 

Sarah  his  wife. 

1765.  June  30,  Susanna,  d.  of  William  &  Mary  Burvill. 

1766.  Aug.   2,   George,    s.    of    George  Burvill,    Clerk,  & 

Juliana  his  wife. 
Dec.  28,  William,  s.  of  William  &  Mary  Burvill. 
1768.     Oct.  2,  James,  s.  of  William  &  Mary  Burvill. 
1771.     Aug.  25,  Camilla,  d.  of  James  Whatman,  Esq.,   & 

Sarah  his  wife. 

1773.  Aug.  20,  John  Alexander,  s.  of  John  &  Elizabeth 

Keutenius. 

1774.  March  1,  L-cBtitia-Philippa,  d.  of  James  Whatman, 

Esq.,  &  Sarah  his  wife. 


THE  REGISTERS.  179 

1775.     Nov.  10,  John,  s.  of  John  &  Elizabeth  Keutenius. 

1777.  May    5,    John,    s.    of    William    Nance,    Clerk,     & 

Lydia  Catharine  his  wife. 
Aug.  24,  Augustus  Selwyn,  s.  of  Charles  &  Louisa 

Villiers. 
Oct.   11,  James,  son  of  James  Whatman,   Esq.,    & 
Susannah  his  wife. 

1778.  July  28,   Lydia   Catharine,   d.   of  William  Nance,i 

Clerk,  &  Lydia  Catharine  his  wife. 

Here  occurs  the  following  note  :  ' '  Thus  far  this  Book  was  used,  till  the 
Duty  on  Marriages,  Baptisms,  and  Burials  took  place,  namely  Oct.  2,  1783. 
(Robert  Parsons,  Curate.) 

1786.     Oct.   5,   Elizabeth  Charlotte,  d.    of   Thomas  Best, 

Esq.,  &  Elizabeth  his  wife. 
1790.     Apr.  10,  Henry  Roddam,  s.  of  Sir  Henry  Calder,^ 

Baronet,  &  Dame  Louisa  his  wife. 
1792.     Feb.    15,    Dorothy,    d.    of   Thomas  Best,   Esq.,   & 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1798.  Aug.  26,  Thomas  Edward,  s.  of  Thomas  Osborne, 

Esq.,  &  Caroline  his  wife. 
Nov.  8,  Frances,  d.  of  Thomas  Hollingworth,  Gent. 

1799.  Apr.  28,  Thirza,  d.  of  Abel  Roots  and  Bet  his  wife. 

1801.  Nov.  6,  Mary  Philippa,  d.  of  the  Rev.  Robert  & 

Maria  Affleck. 

1802.  May  27,  Michael  Elijah  (posthumous),  s.  of  Michael 

Impey,^  Esq.,  and  Henrietta  Matilda  Impey. 

1803.  Dec.  26,  Francis  Henry  Stoddart,  s.  of  the  Rev. 

Henry  Morgan  Say^  &  Marrianne  his  wife. 

1  Vicar  from  1774  to  1780. 

2  Of  Park  House  (Maidstone). 

^  The  eldest  brother  of  Sir   Elijah    Impey,   the   future   Chief  Justice  of 
Bengal,  and  the  close  personal  friend  of  Warren  Hastings. 
*  Curate  of  Boxley  from  1802  to  1805. 


180  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1804.  Sept.  25,  Thomas,  s.  of  Thomas  Eobert  Holling- 

worth,  Esq.,  &  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1805.  March  29,    Henry    Hirst,    s.    of   the    Rev.    Henry 

M.  Say  &  Marianne  his  wife. 

1806.  Apr.  19,  John,  s.  of  Thomas  Hobert  Hollingworth 

Esq.,  &  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1807.  Oct.  3,  Elizabeth,   d.   of  Thomas   Eobert  Holling- 

worth,  Esq.,  &  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1808.  Dec.    15,    Frances    Ann,   d.    of  Thomas   Robert  & 

Elizabeth  Hollingworth. 


MARRIAGES  BY   LICENCE.^ 

1678.     July  9,  William  Whatman  &  Ann  Miller. 
1 686.     March  30,  Thomas  Walcup,  of  Canterbury,  Widower, 
&  Grace  Ellis. 
Aug.  3,  Mr.  Thomas  Handheld  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Salmon, 
1689.     Apr.  2,  Thomas  Adams,  Jr.  (of  Maidstone),  Widower, 
&  Frances  Dawson. 
Apr.  2,  Robert  JefEeries  and  Sarah  Masters. 

1691.  March  26,  William  Medhurst  &  Rebecca  Hadlow. 
Dec.  18,  Barnabas  French,  widower,  of  Maidstone, 

&  Martha  Floyd,  Widow. 

1692.  Oct.  11,  Cornelius  Hilden  &  Sarah  Fraughton. 
Dec.  8,  John  Beal  &  Ann  Gosling. 

1694.     July     12,     Rev.     John     Wyvell,    Vicar     (of     the 
Precincts  of   the   Cathedral  Church    of    Roches- 
ter),  &  Christian  Charlton  (of  Boxley). 
Sept  2,  John  Hammond  and  Martha  Lister. 

^  Any  insertions   for   which  the   Aiitlior   is    indebted    to    tlie    Diocesan 
Register  of  Licences  will  appear  in  parentheses  (  ) . 


THE  EEGISTERS.  181 

1694.     Oct.  9th,  James  Ffoster,  Widower,  and  Elizabeth 
Golding. 

1696.  March    17,    James    Finch    (de   Hertford,    gen.)     & 

Abigail     Macham      (of     Thamstreete,     London, 
Spinster) . 

1697.  Oct.  14,  Edward  Sharly  and  Elizabeth  Wallace. 

1698.  May  6.  Daniel  Paramore,  of  Newington  (Yeoman), 

&  Sarah  Lake,  of  Milton. 
June  9,  James  Wingate  &  Elizabeth  Osmore. 
1700.     July  9,  Henry  Hony,  of  Itham,  (Yeoman),  &  Jane 

Creed. 
Nov.  7th  John  Dames  &  Dorothy  Grodden. 

1702.  Apr.     12,     Edward     Charlton,    of    Hollingbourne, 

Widower,    and     Elizabeth    Munu,    of     Boxley, 
Widder. 

1703.  Aug.    1,    David    Pattenden    (of   Boxley,  Yeoman), 

Widower,  &  Ehzabeth  Smith,  Widow. 
Sept.     5,    Richard     Wenbourne     (of     Westfarley, 
Bachelor)  &  Anne  Jobson  (of  Maidstone,  Spinster). 

1704.  Oct.  10,  Charles  Alexander  &  Elizabeth  Smith. 

1706.  June  18,  William  Barnsly  &  Elizabeth  Firmer. 

1707.  Feb.  18,  Thomas  Muun  &  Susanna  Norton,  both  of 

East  Farleigh. 
1709.     Feb.  10,  Richard  Dormer  &  Ann  Wilson,  of  West 

Peckham. 
1720.     William   Thorold,i  M.D.,    of   Uxbridge,   Widower, 

&  Mary  Charlton. 
Sept.    20,    Augustin   Nelson,     of    Woolwich,    and 

Christian  Idon. 

1  Dr.  Thorold  lived  in  "Treaty  House,"  Uxbridge,  (Lyson's  Environs,  Jjc, 
Supplement,  under  "  Hillingdon,")  the  scene  of  the  abortive  attempt  at  a 
Treaty  between  the  Commissioners  of  King  Charles  and  those  of  Parliament 
in  16U.  (Clarendon's  Rebellion,  Oxford,  1843,  p.  520.) 


182  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1730.     May  18,  Jolin  Geele  and  Mary  Walker,  maiden. 

1739.  July  26,  William  Goldsmith  and  Mary  Pitcher. 

1740.  Nov.  26,  John  Pilcher  of  Town  Sutton,  and  Sarah 

Waters,  of  East  Sutton,  Spinster. 
1746.     March  30,  John  Foster  (Bachelor)  &  Judith  Belcher 

(Spinster),  both  of  Egertou. 
1748.     Jan.  9,  John  Field  &  Mary  Leeds,  both  of  Maidstone. 

Oct.  9,  Richard  Holloway  &  Anne  Athaws. 
1768.     Oct.  17,  John  Keutenius  &  Elizabeth  Bourne. 
1773.     Dec.  13,  Richard  EUiston  Philips,   of  Edinburgh, 

&  Susanna  Elizabeth  Whatman . 
1781.     Nov.    13,    The    Rev.  Peter   RashleiglV    Clerk,    of 

Wouldham,  and  Frances  Burvill. 
1785.     Jan.  9,  William  Twopeny,  Jun.,  of  Rochester,  and 

Dorothy  Best. 
1790.     June  18,  Maurice  Lloyd,  of  St.  Peter's  in  the  East, 

(Oxford)  &  Elizabeth  Best. 
1794.     March    29,    Sir  Charles    Style,    of    Wateringbury, 

Baronet,   &   Camilla  Whatman,  at   Vinter's,  by 

Special  Licence. 
1794.     Sept.    24,    The  Rev.    John   Wood,    of   Heme,    & 

Catherine  Elizabeth  Benson. 
1796.     May    30,    Edward   Baldock,    of    East   Mailing,    & 

Catherine  Oram. 
June    14,    Giles    Hanwell,     of    St.    Bennet-Fink, 

&  Margaret  Keutenius. 
1798.     Jan.  19,  Samuel  Bosanquet  the  Younger,  of  Layton, 

Essex,  &  Letitia  Philippa  Whatman  ;  by  Sir  John 

Fagg,  Bart.,  Vicar  of  Chislet,  Kent. 
1800.     Aug.   14,  Brook  William  Bridges,  Bart.,  of  Good- 

nestone,  &  Eleanor  Foote. 
1  Rector  of  Wouldham,  1775—1788,  and  Vicar  of  Barking. 


THE  EEGISTERS.  183 

BURIALS. 

1678.  Aug.  27,  George,  s.  of  George  &  Elizabeth  Charlton. 
Sept.  1 ,  Henry,  s.  of  Edmund  (sic.  ?  Edwin),  and 

Frances  Wiatt. 
Sept.  24,  Stephen  Mitchell,  Gent.,  of  Stepney. 
Oct.  4,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Daniell  White,  Esq. 
Nov.   1,  Jane,  wife  of  George  Charlton,  Senr. 

1679.  March  31,    Susannah,  d.   of  Thomas  &   Catherine 

Mitchell. 

1680.  Feb.  26,  Mr.  George  Charlton,  Senr. 

April   25,  Elizabeth   d.  of  Thomas   and    Catherine 
Mitchell. 

1681.  Jan.  14,  Bridget  Gngley,  Wid. 

May    18,    Mrs.    Elizabeth    Charlton,    wife   of    Mr. 

George  (Charlton). 
Nov.     25,    John,    s.    of    Sir    Thomas     Seyliard    & 

Frances,  uxor. 

1682.  Apr.  7,  Alice  Charlton,  Wid. 

1683.  Aug.  31,  Mr.  George  Yound,  Householder. 

1684.  Jan.  23,  William  Smith,  Parish  Clarke. 

1686.  June    20,    Sarah,    d.    of    Captn.    Gasper    Hicks   & 

Judeth  his  wife. 
August  11,  Nicholas  Sayer,  a  strainger,  killed  with 

a  fall  from  a  walnut-tree. 
March  3,  Ann,   daughter  of  Mr.  George  Charlton 

&  Elizabeth  his  wife. 

1687.  Dec.  5,  Dame  Margaret  Wiat   (The  widow  of  Sir 

Francis) . 
Dec.   5,    George,    s.    of    Mr.    George    Charlton    & 
Elizabeth  his  wife. 
1689.     May  22,  Daniel  White,i  Esq.,  Householder. 
1  Of  Vinters,  (see  pp.  5,  112). 


184  HISTORY   OF   BOXLEY. 

1689.  July  4,  Mr.  Robert  Andrews^  Citizen. 
Aug.    ,  Mrs.  Ann  Charlton. 

1690.  Dec.  30,  Amey,  wife  of  George  Champnes. 

1691.  May  2,  Ignotus  giiidam  Peregrinus  morte  hiiprovisa 

occujpatus} 
June    1 ,    George,    s.    of    Mr.    George    Charlton    & 

Elizabeth  his  wife. 
Feb.  16,  Thomas  Wyat,  Gen. 

1692.  Oct.  16,  Robert  Rowland,  a  stranger,  stabbed  into 

the  eye  with  a  pitch  fork,   of  which  wound  he 
died. 

1693.  June  18,  The  Rev.  Mr.  Nath.  Massey,^  Curate. 

1694.  Jan.  7,  Jane  Charlton. 
July  28,  John  Charlton. 

1696.  July  6,  Eliz.,  d.  of  Sr.  Th.  Syliard,  Bt. 

1697.  Aug.  3,  Jane,  d.  of  Mr.  George  Charlton. 

1698.  Apr.  29,  Mrs.  Christian,  wife  of  Mr.  John  Wyvell, 

Vicar. 
July  11,  Mrs.  Margaret,  d.  of  Serjeant  Wiet,  [sic). 

1700.  Aug.  16,  Jane  Wiet,  (sic).  Gentlewoman. 

1701.  Sept.  23,  Sr.  John  Syliard,^  Baronet. 
1705.     June  25,  Mr.  John  Wise,  from  Maidstone. 
1707.     June  11,  Mr.  Edwin  Wyatt,  of  Maidstone. 

Aug.  16,  Mr.  George  Charlton. 

1712.  Jan.  19,  Justinian  Champneis,*  Esq. 

1713.  Apr.  8,  Philadelphia,  d.  of  Daniel  White,  Esq. 

1714.  July  13,  Elizabeth,  w.  of  .   .   .   .  Ongley. 
Dec.  11,  Edwin  Wiat,  Esq.,  Sergeant  at  Law. 

1723.     Feb.  1,  Mrs.  Christian  Charlton. 

1  "An  unknovvn  stranger,  who  died  suddenly." 

2  See  page  119.  ^  Of  the  Abbey. 

■*  A  Monument  in  the  Parish  Church  to  his  memory  (see  page  121). 


THE    REGISTEES.  185 

1727.  Apr.  14,  Samuel  Athaws,  of  Weavering. 

Oct.    26,    Mrs.    Frances   Wyat,    Relict    of    Edwin 
Wyat,  Esq.,  Serjeant  at  Law. 

1728.  Mrs.  Sarah  Champneys  Wife  of  Justinian  Champ- 

neis,  Esq.,  of  Vintners. 
Oct.  20,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Best. 

1729.  Dec.  8,  Mrs.  Laurentia  Charlton. 

1732.     Dec.   28,  Dame  Elizabeth   SeyKarcI,  Relict  of   Sir 

Tho.  Seyliard,  Bart. 
1734.     June  29,  Anne,  wife  of  Mr.  Peter  Burvill. 
1736.     Jan.  20,  Mawdistly,  s.  of  Mawdistly  Best,  Esq.,  and 

Eliz.  his  wife. 

1739.  Aug.  21,  Francis  Wiat,  Esq. 

1740.  March  19,  Elizabeth  Burvell. 
1743.     Jan.  10,  Mawdistly  Best,  Esq. 

1745.  Apr.  17,  Christopher  Clapham,  Esq. 

1746.  Jan.  28,  William  Alexander. 
1748.     Apr.  23,  Hannah  Champneys. 

May  22,  Sackville  Champneys. 
Nov.  4,  Elizabeth  Wiat. 
1750.     May  23,  Elizabeth  Charlton. 

1753.  Dec.  31,  Richard  Wiat,  Esq. 

1754.  Sept.  16,  Justinian  Champneys.^ 

1757.  Feb.  9,  Use  Maria  Gerlengen  (a  Hanovernian) . 
Feb.  8,  William  Alexander. 

Dec.  21,  Mr.  Samuel  Athaws. 

1758.  Apr.  12,  Frances  Best  (an  infant). 

1759.  Dec.  18,  Edward  Roberts  (aged  106). 

1  Of  Osten-  or  "Westeu-hanger.  The  family  Monument  in  the  Parish 
Church  states  that  he  was  "one  of  the  five  gentlemen  styled  the  Kentish 
Petitioners"  who  signed  the  Petition  at  Maidstone  in  1701  against  the 
proceedings  of  Parliament,  for  which  they  were  all  imprisoned  till  the  end  of 
the  Session. 


186  HISTORY   OF  BOXLEY. 

1759.     Dec.  26,  Charlotte  Burvill  (an  infant). 

1763.     Dec.  4,  William  Alexander. 

1766,     Aug.  4,  George  Burville  (an  infant). 

Aug.  5,  William  Champneys,  Esq. 

Sept.  21,  Susanna  Burvill  (an  infant). 
1768.     Aug.  12,  William  Gore,  Esq. 
1770.     Marcli  28,  Mary  Gore. 

July  28,  John  Charlton,  Esq. 
1772.     Jan.  28,  Mrs.  Sophia  Champneys. 
1777.     July  8,  Mrs.  Juliana  Burvill. 

1781.  Aug.  31,  Henry  Champneys,  Esq. 

1782.  Feb.  7,  James  Best,  Esq.  (62  years). 

1783.  Aug.    28,    a    young    man,    named    John    Gorham, 

was  hanged  at  Penenden  Heath  and  interred 
in  the  Church  yard  at  Boxley,  for  a  high- way 
robbery. 

(Here  occurs  the  following  entry,  signed  by  Robert  Parsons,  Curate  :  "  Thus 
far  this  book  was  used  until  the  Duty  on  Marriages,  Baptisms,  and  Burials 
took  place,  Oct.  2nd,  1783.") 

1787.     June  8,  Martha,  wife  of  Eichard  Best,  Esq. 
1791.     Aug.  10,  Charlotte  Best. 
1793.     Feb.  17,  Mary  Burvill. 
Aug.  28,  Charlotte  Best. 
Sept.  25,  James  Best. 
1795.     Aug.  14,  Mary,  wife  of  Richard  Best,  of  Chatham. 
John  Burvill,   Esq.,  son  of  the   Reverend  George 
Burvill,  of  this  Parish,  Clerk,  and  a  Major  in  the 
Army,  died  of  a  fever  in  the  Isle  of  St.  Domingo, 
March  15. 
1798.     March  26,  James  Whatman,  Esq. 

Oct.  5,  Rev.  George  Burvill,  Clerk  (73  years). ^ 

1  Monument  in  the  Church  (see  page  121). 


1789 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1807 
1808 


THE   REGISTERS.  187 

Jan.  13,  Edward  Stanley,  Esq.,  of  London. 
Marcli  7,  Mrs.  Frances  Cliampneys. 
April  13,  Richard  Best,  Esq. 
May  30,  John  Keutenius. 
Sept.  4,  Peter  Raslileigh,  Esq.  ^ 
Nov.  7,  Frances  Best  (76  years). 


Monument  in  the  Church  (see  page  124). 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX  A.     See  Page  1. 

The  original  entry  in  "Domesday  Book"  is  in  the  following 
contracted  form  (f.  8.  2,  b.)  : 

"  Rob't'  Latin'  ten'  ad  firma'  Boscleii  (or  Boseleu)  pro  vii, 
soldin'  se  defh'  T.E.E.  Mo'  pro  v.  solin.  T'rss  xx.  caruc'.  Ibi 
d'nio  sunt  iii.  caruc'  &  xiv.  vill'  cu'  xi.  bord'  h'nt  xvi.  car'. 
Ibi  iii.  molini  de  xxxv.  sol'  &  viii.  den'  &  xv.  servi.  Et  xx. 
ac'  p'ti.  Silva  1.  pore'.  T.E.E.  et  post  valuit  xxv.  lib'  Modo  xxx' 
lib  &  tam'  Rob't'  reddit  Iv.  lib'.  Arnold  Cilt  tenuit.  De  hoc  m' 
tenet  Helto  dim'  solin'  et  ibi  h't  i.  car'  cu'  uno  bord',  &  i.  franc'  & 
ii  acr'  p'ti  &  silva  vi.  pore',   val.  xl.  solid'." 

LARKIN'S  EXPANSION. 

"  Robertus  Latinus  tenet  ad  firmam  Bosbleu.  (Pro  vii  solins  se 
defendebat  Tempore  Regis  Edwardi.  Modo  pro  v  solins.)  Terra 
est  XX  carucarum.  In  dominio  sunt  iii  carucae.  Et  xlvi 
villani  cum  xi  bordariis  habent  xvi  carucas.  Ibi  iii  molini  de 
xxxv  solidis  et  viii  denariis.  Et  xvi  servi.  Et  xx  acras  prati. 
Silva  1  Porcorum.  T.  K.E.  et  post,  valuit  xxv  libras ;  Modo  xxx 
libras  :  et  tamen  Robertus  reddit  Iv  libras.  Alnod  (Cilt)  tenuit. 
De  hoc  manerio  tenet  Helto  dimidium  solin.  Et  ibi  habet  i 
carucam,  cum  uno  bordario.  Et  i  franc.  Et  ii  aeras  prati.  Et 
silvara  vi  porcorum,     Et  valet  xl  solidos." 


190  APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX  B.      See  Page  7. 

The  volaminous  Will  of  Stephen  Mason,  (Consistory  Court, 
Canterbury,  XXVIII.,  f.  53-75)  extending  over  22  folio  sheets, 
shows  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  substance,  for  it 
disposes  of  land  in  the  Parishes  of  Bearsted  and  Detling,  as  well 
as  Boxley,  and  valuable  house-property  in  the  City  of  London. 
He  speaks  also  of  a  "  Lordship "  attached  to  the  "  Wavering 
Mansion."  It  will  suffice  for  our  purpose  to  make  such  extracts 
from  his  Will  as  bear  upon  Boxley.     It  runs  thus  : — 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen,  the  tenthe  daye  of  November,  in 
the  yeere  of  Our  Lord  one  thousande  fyve  hundrethe  and  fyfty 
seven,  &c.,  &c. 

"  I,  Stephen  Mason,  dwellinge  in  the  Parishe  of  Boxley,  in  the 
County  of  Kent,  and  beingo  a  Citizen  and  Vintener  of  the  Citye  of 
London,  beinge  in  hole  mynde  and  remembrance,  and  in  good  and 
parfytt  helthe  of  boddye,  Laude  and  Prayse  be  unto  Almightye 
God,  do  constitute,  ordaine,  and  make  thys  my  present  Testament 
and  last  Will  concerninge  my  goods  moveable,  in  manner  and 
fourme  followinge :  Pirste,  I  bequethe  my  soul  unto  Almighty 
God  my  Savyoure  and  Eedemer,  trustinge  to  be  saved  by  the 
sheddinge  of  hys  preciouse  bloude  and  passyon,  and  thereby  to  be 
an  Inherytoure  of  the  Kingdome  of  heaven  ;  and  to  our  blessed 
lady  the  Virgyn,  and  to  all  the  holy  company  of  heaven  :  and  my 
boddye  to  be  buryed  in  the  Paryshe  Churche  Porche  of  Barstedd,^ 
in  the  sayde  County  of  Kent,  neere  unto  my  welbeloved  wyffe 
Margarett  Weasby,  whereas  also  lyeth  my  father  and  mother,  on 
whos  soule  Jesu  have  mercy. 

"  Item,  I  bequeth  unto  the  highe  aultar  of  the  Paryshe  Churche 
of  Boxley,  for   my  tithes  negligently  forgotten  and  withholden 

^  On  a  panel  in  the  East  wall  inside  the  South  porch  of  Bearsted  Church 
is  the  following  Inscription  :  "  Here  lyethe  Steven  Mason,  late  Cytezen  and 
Vyntner  of  London,  and  Margarete  hys  wyfe,  whyche  Margarete 
the  xxiiii.  day  of  December  anno  1552,  and  the  sayd  Steven  the 
day  of  .   .  .  .  A.D.  15  .  .  .  on  whose  soules  IHU  have  mercy. " 


APPENDIX.  191 

iiis.  iiiirf.  Item,  I  bequeth  to  the  reparations  of  the  sayde 
Churche,  whereas  yt  hath  muche  nede,  vis.  viiid,  &c. 

(Then  follow  a  few  instructions  connected  with  his  burial,  in 
which  occurs  the  unusual  word  Jiersetvyndiiige,^  probably  referring 
to  the  removal  of  the  body  from  the  house  ) 

"  Item,  I  bequeth  to  Maister  Roger  Johaness  (sir,.),  now  Vicar  of 
Boxley,  my  longe  blacke  worsted  goune,  furred  with  budge,^  and 
my  blacke  single  goune,  furred  with  damasque,  to  pray  for  my 
soule.  Item,  I  bequeth  to  Maister  Thomas  Vicars,  the  King  and 
Queen's  Surgion,  dwellinge  in  London,  a  ringe  of  gold  withe  a 
cornelian  stone  in  the  same,  with  the  letters  of  my  name  therein 
graven.  (After  this  comes  a  string  of  bequests  of  various  articles 
of  dress  and  furniture  for  different  relatives  and  friends.)  Then  to 
his  wife  Anne  he  leaves  a  life  interest  in  his  "  Mansyon  in 
Wavering  Streete  "  with  the  reversion  of  that  property  to  "  the 
use  of  the  Masters,  Wardens,  and  Commonalty  of  the  mysterye 
and  coinpanye  of  Vintners,  and  their  successors  for  ever,  to  be 
received  by  theni  after  the  decease  of  the  sayde  Anne  my  wyffe." 


APPENDIX  C.      See  Pape  15. 

The  bummons  issued  by  William  the  Conqueror,  convening 
the  Meeting  at  Pennenden  Heath,  as  given  in  Kymer's  Foedera, 
Vol.  i.,  page  3  : 

G(ullielnius)  Dei  Gratia  Eex  Anglorum  L(anfranco)  Archie- 
piscopo  Cantuar(iensi),  et  G(osfrido)  Episcopo  Constantiarum, 
et  K(icardo)  Comiti  de  Ou  et  filio  Comitis  Gil(berti),*  et  H(ugoni) 
de  Monteforti,  suisque  aliis  proceribus  regni  Anglie,  salutem. 

^  The  word  wyncle,  (now  wend)  to  go  ;  herse  meaning  corpse,  &c. 

^  Variously  spelt  Jolines  and  Jones. 

•*  Lambskin,  with  the  wool  dressed  outwards,  often  worn  on  the  edges  of 
capes,  &c.      "  Halliwall's  Dictionary  of  Archaic  Words." 

*  Commonly  called  Richard  Fitz  Gilbert,  Count  of  Auci,  in  Normandy, 
and  variously  of  Ou,  or  Ea. 


192  APPENDIX. 

"  Summonete  Vicecomites  meos  ex  meo  precepto,  et  ex  parte  mea 
eis  dicite  ut  reddant  Episcopatibus  meis  et  Abbatiis  totum 
dominium  omnesque  dominicas  terras,  quas  de  dominio  Episco- 
patuum  meorum  et  Abbatiarum  Episcopi  mei  et  Abbates  eis 
vel  lenitate,  vel  timore,  vel  cupiditate  dederunt,  vel  habere  con. 
Rensuerunt,  vel  ipsi  violentia  sua  inde  abstraxerunt,  et  quas 
hactenus  injuste  possiderunt  de  dominio  ecclesiarum  mearum  :  et 
nisi  reddiderint,  sicut  eos  ex  parte  mea  summonebitis,  vos  ipsos, 
velint  nolint,  constringite  reddere. 

"  Quod  si  quilibet  alius,  vel  aliquis  vestrum,  quibus  banc  justiciam 
imposui,  ejusdem  querere  fuerit,  reddat  similiter,  quod  de  dominio 
Episcopatuum  vel  Abbatiarum  mearum  habuit  :  ne  propter  illud 
quod  inde  aliquis  vestrum  habebit,  minus  exerceat  super  meos 
Vicecomites  vel  alios,  quicunque  teneant  dominium  ecclesiarum 
mearum,  quod  precipio." 


APPENDIX    Ca.     See  age  15. 

Eadmer  thus  describes  the  arrival  and  action  of  Lanfranc, 
Historia,  (1623),  pp.  6,  9  : 

"  In  hujus  regni  anno  quinto  Lanfrancus  Cadomensis 
Coeuobii  Abbas,  vir  strenuus  et  in  divinis  atque  bumanis  rebus 
excellenti  scientia  preditus,  Angliam  ex  precepto  Domini  Pape 
Alexandri  et  predicti  Eegis  advenit,  et  paulo  post  tempore 
Archiepiscopatum     Cantuariensem     regendum     suscepit."    .... 

"  Consuetudines  quas  priscis  temporibus  Ecclesie  Cantuariensi,  ut 
Uberrima  in  cunctis  existeret.  Regis  Anglie  sua  munificentia  con. 
tulerunt,  et  stabiles  in  perpetuuni  manere  sacratissima  sanctiona 
constituerunt,  quorundam  imprudentia  perditas,  sua  prudentia 
recuperavit.  Odo,  siquidem  Episcopus  Baiocensis,  .... 
frater  Regis  Willielmi,  et  Cantie  Comes,  priusquam  Lanfrancus 
Angliam  intrasset,  magnus  et  prepotens  per  totum  regnum 
habebatur.     Hie    dominatione  qua    immensum   sustollebatur,    non 


APPENDIX.  193 

modo  terras  sed  libertatem  nominate  pcclesi(3,  nullo  ei  resistente, 
multipliciter  invaserat,  oppresserat,  tenebat.  Que  ubi  Lan- 
francus,  ut  erant,  didicit,  apud  Eegem  de  illis  egit,  sicut  oportere 
sciebat.  Unde  precepit  Rex,  quatenns  adunatis  primoribus  et 
probis  viris  non  solum  de  Comitatu  Cantie,  sed  et  de  aliis 
Comitatibus  Anglie,  querela  Lanfranci  in  medium  ducerentur 
examinarentur,  determinarentur.  L)isposito  itaque  apud  Pinne- 
DENB  Principum  conventu,  Goffridus  (sic.)  Episcopus  Constan- 
tiensis,  vir  ea  tempestate  predives  in  Anglia,  vice  Regis 
Lanfranco  Justitiam,  in  suis  querelis  strenuissime  facere  jussus, 
fecit.  Lanfrancus  enim  valid  a  ratione  subnixus,  ex  communi 
omnium  astipulatione  et  judicio,  ibi  cuncta  recuperavit,  que 
ostensa  sunt  antiquitus  ad  jura  Ecclesie  Christi  Cantuariensis 
pertinuisse,  tam  in  terris  quam  in  diversis  consuetudinibus.''^ 


APPENDIX  D.2    See  Page  18. 
The  following  is  a   careful   transcript  of  the   original    MS.    in 
the  Rochester   Register,    made   by  tlie  Author,   to  which   he  has 
added  the  various  deviations  made   in  the    printed  copies,   thus  : 
S.E.   Selden's  Notes  to  Eadmeri  Histoiia,  p.  197-199. 
A.S.   Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.,  p.  334-336. 
R.R.  Thorpe's  Regisirum  Roffense,  p.  27-28. 

"REGISTRUM   TEMPORALIUM   EPISCOPORUM 

ROFFENSIUM. 

"  Undecimo  Quaterno,  f.    1,  p.    121. 

''  Quomodo  Lanfrancus,  Archieplscopus  terras  Ecclesiarum 

Cantuariensium  et  Roffensium  diratiocinavit. 

^  A  translation  of  the  entire  document,  as  found  in  "Wilkins's  Concilia, 
in  given  in  Hook's  Lives  of  the  Arcfibishops,  ii.,  127. 

-  In  this  and  all  subsequent  e.xtracts,  when  taken  from  the  MSS.  them- 
selves, the  author  has  adopted  the  simple  e  of  the  genitive  ease  as  in  the 
originals,  but  when  copied  from  printed  sources  lie  has  used  the  cc  diphthong. 
0 


194  APPENDIX. 

"Tempore  Magni  Regis  WiLLiiiLMi,  qui  Anglicum  regnum  armis 
conquisivit,  et  suis  ditionibus  subjugavit,  contigit  Odonem, 
Baiocensem  Episcopum,  et  ejusdem.  Eegis  fratrem,  multo  citiiis 
quam  Laiifrancum  ArcUiepiscopum  in  Angliam  venire,  atqiie  in 
Comitatu  de  Kent  cum  magna  potentia  residere ;  ibique  potestatem 
non  modicam  excercere ;  et  quia  illis  diebus  in  Comitatu  ilL) 
quisquam  non  erat  qui  tante  foititudinis  viro  resistere  posset, 
propter  maguam,  quam  habet,  potestatem,  terras  quam  complures 
de  Archiepiscopatu  Cantuariensi,^  et  Episcopatu  Eoucestrie,"  et 
consuetudines  nonnullas  sibi  arripuit,^  atque  usurpans  sue 
Domiuacioni  ascripsit.  Postea  vero  non  multo  tempore  contigit 
prefutum  Lanfrancum,  Cadomeusis  Ecclesie  Abbatem,  jussu 
Regis,  in  Angliam  quoque  venire,  atque  in  Archiepiscupatum 
Cantuariensem,  Domino  tlisponente,  totius  Anglie  regni  Primatem 
sullimatum  esse  :  Ubi  dum  aliquamdiu  resideret,  et  antiquas 
Ecclesie  sue  terras  niultas  sibi  deesse  inveniret,  et  suorum 
negligentia  autecessorum  illas  distributas  atque  distractas  fuisse 
reperisset,  diligenter  inquisita  et  bene  cognita  veritate,  Regem 
quam  citius  potuit,  et  non  pigre,^  inde  requisivit.  Precepit  ergo 
Rex  Comitatum  totum  absque  mora  considere  et  homines  Comitatus 
omnes  Francigenas  et  precipue  Anglos  in  antiquis  legibus  et 
consuetudinibus  peritos,  in  unum  conveuire.  Qui  cum  con- 
venerunt  apud  Pynindenam^  omnes  pariter  considerunt. 

"Et  quoniam  niulta  placita  de  diratiocinationibus  terrarum  et 
verba  de  consuetudinibus  legum  inter  Archiepiscopum  et  predictum 
Baiocensem  Episcopum  ibi  surrexerunt,  et  etiam  inter  consue- 
tudines Regales  et  Archiepiscopales,  que  prima  die  expediri  nou 
potuerunt,  ea  causa,  totus  Comitatus  per  tres  dies  fuit  ibi  detentus. 
In  illis  tribus  diebus  diratiocinavit  ibi  Lanfrancus  Archiepiscopus, 

1  "Cantuarburie"  for  "  Cantuarieusis"  passim,  S.E.,  A.S.,  &  R.R. 

-  "  et  Episcopatu  Rovcestrie,"  omitted  in  R.R.,  S.E.,  A.S. 

^  "corripiiit."  R.R. 

■*  "impigre."    A.S. 

5  "Piiioudeuam."   S.E.,  A.S.,  R.R. 


APPENDIX.  195 

plures  terras  quas  tunc  ipse  Episcopus  et  hoiniues  sui  tenuerunt.^ 
viz.,  Herebertus  filius  Yvonis,  Turoldus  de  Eoucestria,  Eadulphus 
de  Curva-Spma,  Hugo  de  Monte-Forti,"  Cum  omnibus  consue- 
tudinibus  et  rebus  que  ad  easdem  terras  pertinebant :  '"^  [scilicet 
Eeculvre  (Reculver),  Sandwycs  (Sandwicb),  Eateburg  (Eicli- 
borough),  WoDETUNE  (Wootton),^  Monasterium  de  Lymynge 
(Liminge),  cum  terris  et  consuetuJinibus  ad  ipsum  Monasterium 
pertiuentibus,  Saltwode  (Saltwood)  cum  Burgo,  Heth  (Hytbe),  ad 
Saltwode  pertinente,  Langport,  Newendbnne  (Newenden), 
EoKYKGE  (Eucking),  Detlynge,  Prestetune  (Preston),  Sunder- 
HERSTB  (Sandhurst),  Broche  (Brooke),  Earhethe  (Erith),  Orpyn- 
TONB  (Orpington),  Eynesford  (Eynsford),  Quatuor  Prebenda  de 
Nywbntone  (JSTewington),  Stokes  (Stoke),  and  Denyntune  (Den- 
ington).  In  Suthreia,  favente  Rege  Willielmo,  diratiocinavit 
ipse  Archiepiscopus  Murtelake  (Mortlake)  :  In  London'  Monas- 
terium Sancte  Marie,  cum  terris  et  domibus  quas  Lyvingus 
Presbyter  et  Uxor  illius  habuerunt :  In  Middelsexe,  Heughas 
(Harrow),  Heysam  (Hayes)  :  Bogynhamshyre,  Rysebergham 
(Monk's  Eisborough),  Haltune  (Halton)  :  In  Oxenfordesliyre, 
Nywentone  (Newington)  :  In  Eastsexe,  Stystbde  (Stisted) :  In 
Suthfolcliia,  Frakenham  (Great  Falkeniiam)^].  Item,  super  Ead, 
Eadulphum  de  Curva-Spina,  Ix.  solidatas  de  pastura,  in  Grean^ 
(Isle  of  Grain).  Et  omnes  illas  terras  et  alias  diratiocinavit'^  cum 
omnibus  consuetudinibus  et  rebus  que  ad  easdem  terras  pertine- 
bant,^ ita  liberas  atque  quietas,  quod  in  ilia  die  qua  ipsum  placitum 
finitum  fuit  non  remansit  homo  in  toto  regno  Anglie  qui  aliquid 

^  tenuerunt  homines  ipsiiis  Episcopi.     R.  R. 

'  et  alii  plures  de  hominibus  suis.     R.R. 

^  From  "scilicet"  to  "  Falkeiiham, "  omitted.     A.S.  &  R.R. 

*  Wedetune.     S.E. 

^  "  insiilam  "  inserted  in  A.S. 

^  "cum  omnibus"  to  "pertinebant,"  omitted  in  R.R. 

''  Super  ipsum  Baiocensem  Episcopum,  et  super  ipsos  predictus  homines 
illius,  et  alios,  scilicet,  Detliuges,  Estoces,  et  multas  alias  terras  miuutas," 
inserted  iu  A.S.  &  R.R.,  not  iu  original  MS. 


196  app£:n^dix. 

inde  calumpniaretur  ueque  super  ipsas  teras  etiam  parvum  quiquam 
Clamaret.  Stokes^  vero  et  Denzntune  et  Frakenham  reddidit 
Ecclesie  Sancti  Andree,  quia  de  jure  ipsius  Ecclesie  antiquitus 
fuerunt/  Et  in  eodem  placito  non  solum  istas  prenominatas  et  alias 
terras  sed  et  omnes  libertates  Ecclesie  sue,  et  omnes  Consuetudines 
suas*  renovdvit,  et  renovatas  ibi  diratiocinavit,  Soca,  Saca,  Toll, 
Team,  Flemenesfrenith,^  Grithbreche,  Forstall,  Haimfare,^  Infange- 
netheof,  cum  omnibus  aliis  consuetudinibus,  paribus  istis,  vel 
minoribus  istis,  in  terris,  et  in  aquis,  in  sylvis,  in  viis,  et  in 
pratis,  et  in  omnibus  aliis  rebus  infra  Civitatem  et  extra,  infra 
Burgum  et  extra,  et  in  omnibus  aliis  locis.  Et  ab  omnibus  ^  probis 
et  sapientibus  hominibus  qui  afiuerunt  fuitita  ibi  diratiocinatum, 
et  etiam  a  toto  Comitatu  recordatum"  atque  judicatum,'  quod  sicut 
ipse  Kex  tenet  suas  terras  liberas  et  quietas  in  suo  Dominico,  ita** 
Archiepiscopus  Cantuariensis  tenent  suas  terras  omnino  liberas  et 
quietas  in  suo  Dominico. 

''Huic  Placito  interfuerunt  Goisfridus,  Episcopus  Coustan- 
tiensis,  qui  in  loco  Eegis  fuit,  et  justiciam  illam  tenuit  ; 
Lanfrancus,  Archiepiscopus,  qui,  ut  dictum  est,  placitavit,  et 
totuni  diraciociuavit  ;  Comes  Kantie,  videlicet  predictus 
Odo,  Baiocensis  Episcopus  ;  Ernostus,  Episcopus  Eoucestria ; 
.^THKLRicus,^  Episcopus  de  Cicestria,  vir  antiquissimus  et  legum 
terre  sapientissimus,  qui  ex  precepto  Regis  advectus  fuit,  ad  ipsas 
antiquas  legum  consuetudines  discutiendas  et  edocendas,  in  una 
quadriga;    I^'icardus,   de  Tonebregge ;  ^"   Hugo,    de    Monte- Forti ; 

^  From  "Stokes"  to  "  fuerunt, "  omitted  in  A. S. 

2  "  et  omnes  consuetudines  suas,"  omitted  in  R.R. 

3  "flymene,  fyrmthe."     S.E.  &  R.R.         ^"Hanufare."     S.E. 
•5  "  nils,  "added.     A.S.  &R.R. 

^  "  Concordatum. "     A.S.  &  R  R.      ''  "indicatum."     S.E. 

8  "ita,"  omitted.     R.R. 

^  The  name  is  eri'oneously  given  jEgelricus,    even   in   Ernulpli's   MS., 
evidently  from  a  misconception  of  the  Saxon  letter  TH,  which  somewhat 
resembles  G,  an  error  which  appears  in  S.E.,  A.S.,  and  R.R, 
10  "Tunebregge,"inS.E. 


APPENDIX.  197 

WiLLiELMUS,  de  Acres  ;i  Hatmo,  Vicecomes,  et  alii  multi  Barones 
Eegis,  et  ipsius  Archiepiscopi,  atquo  illorum  Episcoporum  homines 
multi;  et  alii  aliorum  Comitatuum  homines,  etiam  cum  toto  isto 
Comitatu,  multe  et  magne  auctoritatis  yiri,  Francigeni  scilicet  et 
Angli. 

"  In  honim  omnium  presentia  multis  et  apertissimis  rationibus 
demonstratum  fuit,  quod  Eex  Anglorum  nullas  consuetudines 
hahet  in  omnibus  terris  Cantuariensis  et  Roffensisz  ecclesie  nisi 
solummodo  tres ;  et  ille  tres  quas  habet  consuetudines  hce  sunt. 

"  Una,  si  quis  homo  Archiepiscopi  vel  Episcopi  efFodit  illam 
Eegalem  viam  que  vadit  de  Civitate  in  Civitatem.s 

"  Altera,  si  quis  arborem  incidit  juxta  Regalem  viam,  et  earn 
super  ipsam  viam  dejecerit.  De  istis  duabus  consuetudinibus  qui 
culpabiles  inventi  fuerint,  atque  detenti,  dum  talia  faciunt,  sive 
vadimonium  ab  eis  acceptum  fuerit  sive  non,  tamen  in  secutione 
Ministri  Eegis,  et  per  vadimonium  emendabunt  que  juste*  emen- 
danda  sunt. 

"  Tertia  Consuetudo  talis  est ;  si  quis  in  ipsa  Eegali  via  sanguinem 
fuderit,  aut  homicidium,  vel  aliud  aliquid  fecerit  quod  nullatenus 
fieri  licet,  si  dum  hoc  facit  deprehensus  atque  detentus  fuerit,  Eegi 
emendabit.  Si  veio  deprehensus  ibi  non  fuerit,  et  absque  vade 
data,  semel  abierit,  Eex  ab  eo  nichil  juste  exigere  poterit. 

"  Similiter  fuit  ostensum  in  eodem  Placito  quod  Archiepiscopus 
Cantuariensis  ecclesie  in  omnibus  terris  Eegis  et  Comitis  debet 
multas  consuetudines  juste  habere.  Etenim  ab  illo  die,  quo 
clauditur  Alla  (Alleluta)  usque  ad  Octavas  Pasche,  si  quis 
sanguinem  fuderit,  Archiepiscopo  emendabit.  Et  in  omni  tempore, 
tarn  extra  quadrigesimam  quam  infra,  quicunque  illam  culpam 
fecerit  que  Childwyte  vocatur,  Archiepiscopus  aut  totam  aut 
dimidiam   partem    emendationis    habebit,     infra     quadragesimam 

1  "Arces."     S.E.,  A.S.  and  R.R. 

2  "et  Roflfensis,"  omitted  in  S.E.,  A.S.  &  R.R. 
^  "inter  civitatem  et  civitatem,"  R.R. 

■*  "  injuste,"  in  S.E. 


198  APPENDIX. 

quidem  totam,  et  extra  aut  totam  ant  diniidiam  emendationem 
Habet  etiam  in  eisdem  terris  omnibus  quecunque  ad  curam  et 
salutem  animarum  videntur  pertinere. 

"  Hiijus  Placiti  multis  testibus  multisque  rationibns  determinatum 
finem  ])ostquani  Rex  audivit,  laudavit ;  laudans  cuui  consensu 
omnium  Prinoipum  suorum  confirmavit,  et  ut  deinceps  iucorruptus 
perseveraret,  firmiter  precepit.  Quod  propterea  scriptum  est  hie, 
ut  et  in  future  in  eternum  memorie  proficiat,  et  ipsi  futuri  ejusdem 
Ecclesie  Christi  Cantuariensis  successores  sciant,  que  et  quanta  in 
dignitatibus  ipsius  Ecclesie  a  Deo  tenere,  atque  a  liegibus  et 
Principibus  bujus  regni  eterno  jure  debeant  exigere. 

"Acta  sunt  hec  anno  Domini  millesimo  septuagesimo  sexto."  ^ 


APPENDIX  E.     See  Page  23,  n. 

A  MS.  leaf  of  an  ancient  Record,  discovered  among  the  Cot- 
toniam  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  by  Walter  de  Gray  Birch, 
Esq.,  F.S.A.,  and  }irinted  in  his  work  entitled  "  Domesday  Book  " 
(pages  293-6),  evidently  formed  part  of  a  full  account  of  this 
memorable  Trial,  and  is  added  here,  as  containing  some  more 
minute  details,  and  some  distinct  items,  which  are  not  in  the 
Rochester  Record. 
"Fulchestan  de  beneficio  Regis  est. 

"  Ratebourc  de  Archiepiscopatu  est ;  et  Edzinus^  dedit  Goduino. 
"  Stepeberga  de  Archiepiscopatu  est,  et  Ecclesia  Christi  erat  inde 

saisita     quando      Rex     mare      transivit,      mode     Episcopus 

Baiocensis  habet. 
"  In  Tilemanestun    q     R.    m.   t.^  erat  Ecclesia    Christi  saisita  de 

^  Tills  last  line  is  also  omitted  iu  the  Cottonian  MS.,  from  which,  probably, 
Selden,  and  all  the  others,  copied,  without  consulting  the  original  Rochester 
Register,  in  which  the  date  is  thus  expressly  given. 

2  Edzinus,  or  Eadsige,  was  Abp.  1038-50. 

^  q.  R.  ra.  t.  for  "quando  Rex  mare  transivit" — when  the  King  crossed 
over  the  sea. 


APPENDIX.  199 

ducentis    jugeribus    terra?,    et    in    Fenglesham    de    centum 

jugeribus,  et   in  Elme  de  viginti  quinque  jugeribus  ;  et  modo 

ea  Osbernus  ab  Episcopo^  tenet. 
"  Totesham   Alnod   Cbild   de  monachis  tenebat    q.   R.  m.   t.,2    et 

firmam  inde  reddebat,  et  modo  Episcopus  habet. 
"  Torentum    viginti    quinque   jugera    habet    et   Eeclesia    habebat 

q.  R.  m.  t.,  et  modo  Episcopus  habebat,  sed  dimisit. 
"  Witriscosham   Eeclesia   Chri4i  habebat   q.    R.    m.   t.,   et    modo 

Osbernus  paisforere  ab  Episcopo  habet. 
"  Awentinsgesherst    &     Edruneland,    &    Adwolwenden    Eeclesia 

tenebat  q.  R.  m,  t.,  et  firmam  inde  habebat,  et  modo  Robertus 

de  Romenel  ab  Episcopo  habet. 
"  Prestitun  Alnod  Child  ab  Archiepiscopo  tenebat  q.  R.  m.  t.  et 

firmam  reddebat,  et  raodo  Turoldus  ab  Episcopo  habet. 
"  Godricus  Decanus  dedit  fratri  suo  quartam  partem  solingi  quod 

pertinebat  ad  Clivam.  et  modo  Robertus  Willelmus  ab  Episc, 

habet. 
"  Sunderhirsc   de   Archiepiscopatu   est,    et   Archiepiscopus    dedit 

Goduino,  et  Episcopus  modo  habet. 
"  Langport  &  Newenden  de  Archiepiscopatu  est,  &  Archiepiscopus 

dedit  Goduino,  et  Episcopus  statim  in  placito  cognovit  esse  de 

Eeclesia. 
"  Saltoda  de  Archiepiscopatu  est,  et  Archiepiscopus  dedit  Goduino, 

&  modo  Hugo  de  dono  Regis  habet. 
"  Fecit  Archiepiscopus  Lanfranchus  alios  clamores  super  Episcopum 

et  super  Hugonem  ;  sed  in  hundretis  debent  diffiniri. 
"  Pimpe  et  Chintun,  et  Westaldingis   Adaldredus  de  Archiepiscopo 

tenebat,  et  modo  Richardus  habet. 
"  Penesherst    de   Archiepiscopatu   est,    &  Archiepiscopus   tenebat 

q.  R.  m.  t.,  et  censum  et  firmam  inde  habebat. 
"  Tercium  denarium  de  coraitatu  Archiepiscopus  qui  ante  Edzinum 

fuit  habuit.     Tempore  Edzini  Rex  Edwardus  dedit  Goduino. 

^  Episcopus  always  refers  to  Odo,  Bishop  of  Baieux. 


200  APPENDIX. 

Terras  omnes  qupe  pertinent  ad  Archiepiscopatum  et  ad 
Abbatiam  sancti  Augiistini ;  et  terras  comitis  Goduini,  testati 
sunt  esse  liberas  ab  omni  consuetudine  regia,  praBter  antiquas 
vias  quae  vadunt  de  civitate  in  civitatem,  et  de  mercato  ad 
mcrcatuni,  et  de  porta  maris  ad  alium  portum. 

"  De  ilia  calunniia  quam  Episcopus  Odo  fecit  de  pratis  Archie, 
piscopi  et  Sancti  Augustini,  judicaverunt  omnes  quod  in 
justicia  haberet,  et  prata  utriusque  ecclesise  sicut  ceterae  terrse 
libera  esse  deberent 

"  Terra    Goduini   damee   ad    ecclesiam  Sancti   Augustini  pertinet, 
et  q.  E.  m.  t.  ecclesia  de  terra  ilia  servieium  habebat,  et  modo 
Hugo  de  dono  regis  habet. 
The  MS.  bears  this  endorsement  in  a  different  handwriting  : — 

"  Quod  Archiepiscopus  antiquitus  habebat  tercium  denarium  de 
comitatu  Cantie,  &  hoc  jure  ipsius  esse  debet. 

"  Scriptum     de     terris     quas     antiquitus     habuit     Cantuariensis 

Ecclesia." 


APPENDIX  F.     See  Page  42,  n.  43. 

Patent  Eoils,  15  Edward  II.  Pt.  i.,  m.  11.  (1321.) 
Pro.  Aldermannis  et  Civibus  London'. 
'•'  Eex  dilectis  sibi  Aldermannis  Vicecomitibus,  Civibus,  et  Com- 
munitati  Civitatis  sue  London,  salutern.  Cum  nuper  de  gratia  nostra 
special!  replegiavimus  vobis,  prefati  Aldermanni  et  Cives,  ofificium 
Majoritatis  Civitatis  illius,  usque  ad  quindenam  S'ti  Michaelis 
proxime  preteritam  quod  quidem  officium  prius  coram  Justiciariis 
nostris  itinerantibus  apud  Turrira,  London',  quibusdam  de  causis 
captum  fuit  in  manum  nostram  et  nominacionem  per  vos,  predicti 
Aldermanni  et  Cives,  nobis  factam  de  Hamone  de  Chigwell,^  Cive 
Civitatis   predicte,  pro  dicto  officio  per  tempus  predictum  regendo 

1  This  Hamo  Chigwell  (Hamond  Chickwell)  was  evidently,  like  John 
Gilpin,  "a  Citizen  of  credit  and  renown,"  for  he  was  Mayor  of  London  in 
1321,  1322,  1324,  1325,  and  1327. 


APPENDIX.  201 

acceptaverimus,  sacramentumque  recoperimus  ab  eodem  iit  decebat, 
et  ei  custodiam  Civitatis  predicte  habendum  et  regendum  in  forma 
predicta  fecerimus  liberari,  et  idem  Hamo  custodiam  et  regimen 
Civitatis  predicte  sic  babuerit  usque  mode,  et  adhuc  babeat  in 
presenti ;  Nos  volentes  vobis  uberiorem  gratiam  facere  in  hac 
parte  concessimus  vobis  quod  aliquom  Civem  de  vobis  sufficientem 
et  utilem  pro  nobis  et  populo  nostro  Civitatis  ejusdem  ad  custodiam 
et  regimen  ejusdem  Civitatis  nominare  possitis  ad  voluntatem 
nostram  habendum,  et  ipsum  nobis  ad  Scaccarium  nostrum  pre- 
sentare  ad  sacramentum  nobis  in  hac  parte  debitum  ibidem 
faciendum.  Et  ideo  vobis  mandamus  quod  hujusmodi  Civem 
de  vobis  nominatis  et  ad  dictum  Scaccarium  presentetis  in  forma 
predicta, 

"  Teste  Rege  apud  Boxle  xxv.,  die  Octobris. 
"  Per  breve  de  privato  sigillo  ;  et  mandatum  est  Custodi  Officii 
Thesaurie  et  Baronibus  de  Scaccario  quod  ipsum  quern  dicti  Alder- 
manni,  Yicecomites,  Cives  et  Communitas  nominaverint,  et  eis  ad 
dictum  Scaccarium  presentaverint,  sicut  predictum  est,  ad  hoc 
nomine  Regis  admittent^  et  ab  ipse  sacramentum  debitum  recipient. 
Teste  ut  supra." 


APPENDIX  F.  A.      See  Page  39. 

Richard,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  grauts  Stoke  at  Hoo  to  Boxley 
Abbey. 

"  Universis  Christi  fidelibus,  &c.  Ricardus  dei  Gracia  Roflfen. 
Ep.  Salutem,  &g.  Ad  universitatis  vestre  noticiam  volumus  per- 
venire  qaod  nos  intuitu  Dei  et  hospitalis  quam  domus  de  Boxele, 
passim  et  sine  dilectu,  personaliter  exhibet  universis  ad  eandem 
domum  confluentibus,  de  voluntate  &  consensu  nostri  Capituli 
dedimas  &  concessimus  Abbati  &  Conventui  de  Boxele  ecclesiam 
parochialem  de  Stokes,  cum  omnibus  ad  eandem  pertinentibus, 
perpetuo  in  proprios  usus  possidendam,  &c."    {Reg.  Roff.  p.  620.) 


202  APPENDIX. 

Confirmed  by  the  Pope. 

'•  Clemens  Ep.  Serv.  Servorum  Dei,  dilectis  filiis  Abbati  et  Con- 
ventui  Monasterii  sancte  Marie  de  Boxleya  Cist.  Ord.  Cant.  Dioc. 
Exhibita  siquidem  nobis  vestra  peticio  continebat,  quod  bone 
memorie  Ricardus  Eoffensis  Episcopus,  pie  considerans  quod  in 
Monasterio  vestro  pro  exercendo  ibidem  hospitatis  officio,  non  erat 
sufficientia  facultatum,  ecclesiam  de  Stokes  Roif.i  Dioc.  ad  col- 
lacionem  suam  libere  pertinentem,  &c.  Nos  itaque  vestris 
supplicacionibus  inclinati,  &c.,  id  auctoritate  apostolica  con- 
firmamus,  &c.  Datum  Viterbi  iiii  kal.  Febr.  pontif.  nostri 
tercio  anno." 

APPENDIX  a.      See  Page  44. 

E  Registro  Temporalium  Episcoporum  Roffensium. 
"  Litera  Attornati." 

"  Omnibus  Sancte  Matris  Ecclesie  filiis,  Hugo  Cundavena,^ 
Comes  S'ti  Pauli,  salutem,  &c." 

"  Universitati  vestre  notum  facio  quod  Ballivi  mei,  quos  habeo 
in  Anglia  babentes  "warrantizam  brevis  mei,  cum  sigillo  meo 
dependente,  ut  quicquid  de  tenementis  meis  facerent,  ita  stabile 
foret,  ac  si  ego  ipse  fecissem,  fecerunt  quandam  rationabilem 
venditionem,  sicut  eis  mandavi  Uteris  nostris,  de  quodam  essarto 
meo  juxta  Terentforde,  Canonicis  de  Leysnes,^  et  in  Arra  centum 
solidos  receperunt,  datis  fidejussoribus  et  fide  interposita  ex  parte 
mea,  quod  pactio  ilia  stabilis  permaneret.  Post  banc  autem  con" 
ventionem  sic  factam,  occulte  veniunt  ad  me  in  partes  transmarinas 

^  The  Abbot  &  Convent  of  Boxley  present  Adam  de  Hanele  to  Stoke 
Vicarage,  in  1244.     {Reg.  Roff.,  p.  622.) 

2  CuNDAVENA,  not  Candeii,  as  Lambarde  renders  it,  was  a  sirname  com- 
mon to  the  Counts  de  St.  Pol.  Its  origin  is  doubtful,  probably  from  candens 
avena  or  caminis  avene.  This  letter  is  undated,  and  as  there  were  no  less 
than  six  of  the  family  called  Hugo  between  1067  and  1307,  it  is  very  difficult 
to  single  out  the  one  who  may  have  been  the  victim  of  this  deception,  if  it 
were  true.     (Diet.  Hist,  et  Arrheol.  iii.,  284.) 

^  Leysnes,  or  commonly  Lesnes,  was  an  Abbey  near  Erith. 


APPENDIX.  203 

Monachi  Boxele  priusquani  scirem  quid  egissent  Ballivi  niei,  et 
conveniunt  me  super  emptione  ejusdeni  essarti,  supprimentes  mihi 
veritatem  rei  geste,  et  pactionis  firmitato  cum  conventu  de  Leanes, 
corruperant  eciam  inuneribus  et  blanditiis  nuncium  quemdam, 
qui  missus  a  Ballivis  meis  mihi  veritatem  indicare  debuerat.  Cum 
igiter  ignorarem  versutias  illorum,  feci  paotionem  cum  illis  de 
predicta  ventitione  :  sed  agnita  postmodum  e  veritate  et  intevcepta 
eorum  astutia,  retiuui  cartas  meas  quas  volebant  fraudulentur 
asportare,  priusquam  eas  vidissem  vel  audissem.  Ea  propter 
cassato  deceptionis  eorum  conatu,  consilio  Curie  mee  et  multorum 
virorum  prudentium,  coufirmavi  carta  mea  primam  conventionem 
factam  Canoaicis  de  Leysnes  per  warrantizam  brevis  mei.  Quare 
volo  ut  ipsa  conventio  stabilis  et  inconcussa  permaneat,  roborata 
coufirmatione  domini  mei  Regis  Auglie,  qui  terram  illam  mihi 
dedit  :  ne  Mouachi  Boxele  eos  in  aliquo  super  hoc  vexare  possint. 
NuUatenus  euim  audiendi  sunt,  cum  nullo  raodo  jus  aliquod  in 
predicta  terra  vendicare  juste  possint.  Valete." 
Registrum  Roffens'e,  p.  316. 


APPENDIX  G.  A.      See  Page  45. 

A  Letter  from  the  Prior  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  giving 
licence  to  one  of  the  Monks  to  migrate  to  Eobertsbridge. 

"  Universis,  &c.,  &c.  Robertus  (Hathbrand),  Prior  Ecclesie 
Christi,  Cantuariensis,  salutem,  &c.  Noveritis  quod  dilectus  nobis 
in  Christo  Prater  Johannes  Whyte  noster  commonaclius  ordinem 
regulareni  in  dicta  Ecclesia  expresse  profesHus  coram  nobis  por- 
sonaliter  constitutus,  cupiens,  ut  asseruit,  coelitus  inspiratus  ex 
caritate  et  non  ex  temeritate  vel  levitate,  vitam  ducere  artiorem  ac 
(levfjtionu  majoris  rengionis  propter  frugem  vite  melioris  ad  aliam 
artiorem  ordinem  transvolare,  Domino  virtutum  obsequiiim  impen- 
surus,  a  nobis  humiliter  postulasset  quatinus  sibi  licentiam 
transeundi  ad   ordinem   Cisterciensem  ac  in  Monasterio  de  Ponte 


204  APPENDIX. 

Eoberti  ejusdem  ordiuis  Cicestrensis  Diocesis  suo  perpetuo  con- 
versandi,  concedere  dignaremur.  Nos  &c.  ipsius  piis  affectibus 
annuentes,  sibi  ad  dictum  ordinem  Cisterciensem  transeundi  et 
conversandi,  ut  appetit,  in  Monasterio  memorato  licentiam  con- 
cedimus  per  presentes.  In  cujus  rei  &c,  &c.  Data  Cantuarie. 
.  .  .  .  die  mensis  Augiisti  anno  Dimine  MCCC.  quinquagesimo 
quarto  (1354)." 

Canterbury  Chapter  Records,  L.,  59-60.     Literce  Cantuarienses 
(J.  B.  Sheppard),  ii.,  326. 


APPENDIX  G.  B.     See  Page  45. 

A  Letter  from  the  Abbot  of  Boxley  regarding  the  admission  of 
William  Pouns,  an  apostate  Benedictine  Monk  of  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  into  the  Cistercian  Abbey  of  Boxley. 

"  Johannes,  permissions  Divina  Abbas  Ecclesie  Sancte  Marie  de 
Boxle,  et  ejusdem  loci  Capitulum,  venerabili  viro  Willelmo  Powns, 
Monacho  Ecclesie  Christi  Cantuariensis,  salutem  in  Domino 
sempiternam.  Quum,  ait  Scriptura,  Spiritus  ubi  vult  spirat  et 
nescitur  unde  veniat  aut  quo  vadat,  et  ideo  non  qui  vias  illius 
spiritus  valeat  perscutari  ;  et  tu,  ob  devotionem  invictissime 
Crucis,  necnon  et  Sancte  Marie  Virginis  gloriose,  desiderans  apud 
Ecclesiam  nostram  vitam  ducere  artiorem,  eodem  Spiritu  Sancto 
ductus,  idcirco  tibi  concedimus  unanimiter  in  communi  nostra 
domo  Capitulari,  quatenus,  petita  licentia  a  tuo  Priore  et  Capitulo, 
jam  sede  vacante,^  transferendi  te,  ad  Ecclesiam  nostram  venire 
valeatis,  et  tanquam  noster  commonachus  inter  uos  perpetuo 
Domino  famulari ;  teque,  cum  veneris  cum  dicta  licentia,  recipere 
promittimus  in  nostrum  commonachum  et  confratrem.  In  cujus 
rei,  &c.,  &c.  Data  in  domo  nostra  Capitulari  vicesimo  quinto  die 
mensis  Aprilis  anno  Domini  MCCCCXLIII.  (1443.)" 


■^  Archbishop  Cliicliele,  who  had  granted  licence  for   his  re-admission 
Christ-Church,  had  died  on  the  12th  of  the  same  month. 


to 


APPENDIX.  •      205 

APPENDIX  G.  c.     See  Page  63. 

The  Letter  from  John  Hoker,  of  Tvlaidstone,  to  Bullinger,  given 
by  Burnet  in  his  Collection  of  Records,  Part  vi ,  Book  iii.,  p.  180, 
No.  Iv.,  runs  thus  : 

"  Ruit  hie  passim  Azzotinus  Dagon  :  Bel  ille  Babylonicus  jam- 
dudum  confractus  est," 

"Repertus  est  nuper  Cantianorum  deus  ligneus,  pensilis  Christus, 
qui  cum  ipso  Proteo  cocertare  potuisset.  Nam  et  capite  nutare, 
innuere  oculis,  barbam  convertere,  incurvare  corpus,  adeuntium 
aversari  et  recipere  preces  citissimo  noverat.  Hie  cum  Monachi 
sua  causa  caderent,  repertus  est  in  eorum  templo,  plurimo  cinctus 
anathemate,  linteis  cereis,  agricis  ....  exterisque  ditatus 
muneribus,  <^c.,  &c.  .  .  .  Hinc  factum  est  ut  populum  Cantianum, 
imo  Angliam  totam  jam  seculis  aliquot  magno  cum  qu^estu 
dementarit.  Patefactus  Meydstaniensibus  meis  spectaculum  pri- 
mitus  dedit,  ex  summo  culniine  coufertissimo  se  ostentans  popuk), 
aliis  ex  animo,  aliis  Ajacem  risu  simulantibus.  Delatus  hinc 
circulator  Londinum  est.  Invisit  aulam  Regis.  Regem  ipsuni, 
novus  hospes  :  nemo  salutat  vere  Conglomerant  ipsum  risu 
aulico,  Barones,  Duces,  Marchioues,  Comites.  Adsunt  e 
longinquo  circumstandurn,  intuendum  et  videndum  penitus. 
Agit  ille,  minatur  oculis,  aversatur  ore,  distorquet  nares,  niittit 
deorsum  caput,  incurvat  dorsum,  annuit  et  renuit.  Vident, 
rident,  mirantur  :  Strepit  vocibus  theatrum,  volitat  super 
sethera  clamor.  Rex  ipse,  incertum  gavisusne  magis  sit  ob 
patefactam  imposturam,  an  magis  doluerit  ex  animo  tot  seculis 
miserte  plebi  fuisse  impositum.  Quid  multis  opus"?  res  delata  est 
ad  Conciliarios.  Hinc  post  dies  aliquot  l^abita  est  Londini  concio  : 
predicabat  e  sacra  cathedra.  Episcopus  Roffensis  :  stat  ex  adverso 

Danieli  Bel  Cantianus,    summo    erectus    pulpito Cumque 

jam  incalesceret  concionator,  et  verbum  Dei  occulte  operaretur  in 
cordibus  auditorum,  prajcipitio  devolvunt  istum  lignum  truncum  in 
confertissimos  auditores,      Hie  varius  auditor  diversorum  clamor  : 


206  APPENDIX. 

rapitur,  laceratur,  frubUUatiui  cuiiuuinuitur,  scinditur  in  mille 
confractus  partes  ;  tandem  in  igneni  mittitur.  Et  hie  tulit 
exitum  ilium  !" 


APPENDIX  H.     See  Page  71. 

Thk    Burial    of   Thomas    a'    Becket. 

Radulplius  de  Diceto/  Decern  Scriptores,  (Tvvysden,)  p.  556. 

"  Die  Martis  occubuit  manibus  impiorum  confossus.  ■  Die 
Martis  translatus  est.  Sequent!  die  Mercurii  summo  mane 
nefandus  rumor  increbuit  quod  nefandi  carnitices  Archiepiscopi 
corpus  abstrahere  a  sacro  loco  condixerant,  et  canibus  decer- 
pendum  vel  avibus  extra  muros  proicere.  Abbas  itaque  de 
Boxeleia,  Prior  et  Couventus  Cantuariensis  ecclesie,  prudentum 
consilio  statuerunt  ut  id  maturiori  traderent  sepultura^  ;  quod 
nee  aquis  ablueudum  aliquibus  videbatur,  praesertim  cum  longa 
satis  abstinentia  fuerit  clarificatum,  abster.sum  cilicio,  proprio 
purificatum  in  sanguine."  " 

Matthew  Paris  (EoUs  Series)  Stubbs,  ii.,  281,  gives  it  thus  : 
"  Crastino  mane  rumor  perstrepit  in  ecclesia  quod  paravissent 
familia  ilia  de  Broch  cum  suis  complicibus  eum  ab  ecclesia 
extrabere,  dolentes  quod  ilium  in  ecclesia  trucidassent,  quod 
timentes,  monachi  ocius  accelerant  sanctum  corpus  illud  sepeliri  et 
sepulchro  iuferre.  Aflfuit  illi  obsequio  Abbas  de  Boxlea  et  Prior 
de  Dovra,  vocati  prius  ab  Arcliiepiscopo,  quia  eorum  consilio 
Priorem,  qui  in  Cantuariensi  non  erat  ecclesia,  unum  de  Monachis 
facere  voluit." 

^  He  claims  to  have  been  a  personal  attendant  on  the  Archbishop. 
^  See  also  Chronica  Gervasii  (ibidem)  p.  1,416. 


APPENDIX.  207 

APPENDIX  I.     See  Page  80. 

Letter  from  Abp.  Warliam  to  Cardinal  Wolsey.  State  Papers 
of  Henry  VIII.  (Eecord  Office),  Vol.  iii.,  Part  ii.,  1353. 

"Pleaco  it  your  good  grace  to  understand  that  a  certaine  preest, 
called  S'r  Adaui  Bradshawe,  whom  I  send  now  unto  your  good 
Lordship,  was  put  into  prison  at  Maidstone  for  his  great  pre- 
sumption in  pulling  down  and  breking  of  suche  writinges  and 
seales  as  were  set  up  at  the  Abbey  at  Eoxley  against  the  yl 
opinions  of  Martine  Luther.  Wliiche  preeste,  being  thus  in 
prison,  hath  writen  and  caused  to  bee  cast  into  the  highe  stret  at 
Maidstone  verie  sedicous  billes  against  the  Kinges  grace  most 
honorable    counsail    and   other    estates    of    this   realme    (as  I  am 

informed) As   tochinge    the    pulling   downe    and   breking 

of  the  said  writinges  and  scales,  which  were  set  up  at  the  Popis 
holines  coinmaundemeut  and  by  yo'r  grace  authoritie,  and  undtr 
my  seale,  it  may  pleace  yo'r  lordship  to  punishe  him  therefor,  if 
he  escape  the  other  dainger,  or  els  it  may  pleace  yo'r  grace  to 
remit  him  to  bee  punished  by  me,  &c.,  &c.     xvi.  Junii,  (1522). 

•'  To  the  mooste  reverende  father  in  Godde,  and  my  singular 
good  lord,  my  lord  cardinal  and  legate  a  latere  is  good  lordship." 


APPENDIX  La.     See  Page  81. 

Letters  and  Papers,  Foreign  and  Domestic  (Brewer),  Vol.  iv.. 
Part  i.,  1324,  3  May,  299.  William  Warham,  Abp.  of  Canter- 
bury, to  Wolsey. 

"  Has  received  letters  from  the  abbot  of  Boxley,  offering  the 
security  of  his  house  for  the  payment  of  money  due  to  the  King. 
Would  not  have  interfered,  as  the  place  is  exempt,  had  he  not 
been  forced  by  the  act  of  Convocation  authorizing  him  and  the 
Bp.  of  London  to  proceed  against  such  as  pay  not  their  collect. 
As  the  place  is  much  sought  from  all  parts  of  the  realm  visiting 


208  APPENDIX. 

the  Kode  of  (ji-ace,  would  be  sorry  to  })ut  it  uuder  au  interdict. 
Wishes  his  opinion  about  the  matter.  The  Abbot  is  inclined  to 
live  precisely,  and  bring  the  place  out  of  debt,  or  else  "  it  were 
pity  that  he  should  live  much  longer  to  the  hurt  of  so  holy  a  place 
where  so  many  miracles  be  showed. 

"  Otford,  3  May.     To  my  lord  Cardinal  of  York  and  Legate  de 
latere." 


APPENDIX  K.     See  Pages  84,  100. 
BoxLEY  Terrier  (16  August,   1615). 

"The  Terrier  of  the  Landes  Tenementes  and  portion  of  Tyethes 
that  belong  to  ye  Vioaredge  and  Parsonage  of  Boxleye. 

"  Concerninge  the  Vicaredge  heere  is  in  ye  possession  of  our 
Minister  his  dwellinge  howse,  a  stable,  and  a  little  gardener  (sic.) 
with  two  or  three  littel  garden  plates  (1  plots)  and  a  yarde  well 
and  substantiallye  fenced  &  repayred.  Allsoe  our  Minister 
exhibited  unto  us  a  writinge  in  parchment^  concerninge  a  portion 
of  tyethes  belonginge  to  the  Vicaredge  of  Boxleye  whiche  was 
layde  up  in  the  Churche  Cheste  with  three  lockes,  the  contentes 
whereof  as  folio  wethe  : 

"  To  all  treue  Christian  People  to  whom  these  presente  letters 
of  Testimonie  shall  concern.  We,  John  Chamber,  Clerke,  Vicare 
of  East  Peckeham  in  the  Countie  of  Kente,  Thomas  Hartredge 
Senior  of  Maydeston  in  the  sayde  Counte,  Eichard  Asteu  of 
the  same,  John  Burbage  Senior,  of  the  Parishe  of  Boxleye,  in 
the  same  sayde  Coutie  of  Kente,  William  Burbage,  John  Byrche, 
John  Style  Senior,  and  Thomas  Browne  of  the  same  Parishe  of 
Boxleye,  sende  greetinge  in  the    Lord    everlastinge.      Knowe  ye 

^  A  very  much  defaced  document,  which  seems  to  be  the  original  parchment 
referred  to,  is  preserved  in  the  Office  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Maidstone  at 
Canterbury. 


APPENDIX.  209 

that  we  the  sayde  John  Chamber,  Thomas  Hartredge,  Eichard 
Asten,  John  Burbege,  William  Burbege,  John  Birche,  John 
Style,  and  Thomas  Browne,  doe  Testifie  and  knowe  that  the  Vicar 
of  Boxleye  aforesayde,  and  all  other  Yicars  his  predecessors,  and 
everye  of  them  for  theire  tyme  have  beene  in  quiete  and  peasable 
possession  of  all  manner  of  tythes  as  well  prediall  as  personale 
with  oblations  and  all  other  dutyes  accustomed  to  be  payde  oute 
of  the  landes  apperteininge  to  the  manner  of  Vynters  within  the 
sayde  Parislie  of  Boxleye,  from  x.  to  xx.,  xxx.,  xl.,  1.,  Ix.  yeeres 
before  the  date  hereof.  And  that  theye  nor  any  other  persons  now 
livingR  have  hearde  or  known  to  the  conterairie.  Savinge  that 
the  late  dissolved  Pryor  of  Ledes  had  the  tythe  cornes  of  certeyne 
peeces  of  thesayed  Vinters  landes.  All  whiche  matters  shall  be 
justified  at  all  tymes  whensoever  the  same  shall  be  required.  In 
witness  whereof  we  the  saide  John  Chamber,  Thomas  Hartredge, 
Richard  Asten,  John  Burbage,  William  Burbage,  John  Birche, 
John  Style,  and  Thomas  Browne,  and  everye  of  us  to  this  our 
Letters  of  Testimonie  have  sett  our  Seales.  Given  the  xviii.  daye 
of  May  in  the  third  yeare  of  ye  Rcigne  of  our  moste  drad  (sic.) 
sovereign  Lorde  Edwarde  the  sixte  by  the  grace  of  God  Kinge  of 
Englande,  France,  and  Irelande,  Defender  of  the  Faythe,  and  in 
erthe  of  the  Churche  of  Englande  and  alsoe  of  Irelande  Supreme 
heade.  This  portion  of  tythes  bathe  beene  detayned  from  our 
Minister  and  his  predecessor  before  him. 

Touchinge  the  parsonage  there  is  the  dwellinge  house  with 
two  barnes  and  certayne  outhowses,  and  one  pigeon  howse, 
1  ourchard,  yarie,  allsoe  one  feild  calde  Courtelandes,  conteininge 
about  16  acres,  one  crafte  called  Parsons  acre^  beinge  1  acre, 
1  persell  called  Blackebush,  being  3  acres,  &  1  ])ersell  to  the 
quantitie  of  halfe  a  woode,  one   peece    of   woode    called    Parsons 

^  A  very  much  defaced  document,  which  seems  to  be  the  original  parch- 
ment referred  to,  is  preserved  in  the  Office  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Maidstone, 
at  Canterbury. 


210  APPENDIX. 

heme,    conteininge    16    acres,    one   other   peece  of  ruffe  grounde 
called  Parsons  Waste,  beinge  8  acres. 

Henry  Wise.  George  Case,  Vicar  of  Boxlye. 

Thomas  Fletcher.  William  Tylden, 

Thomas  Cod.  William  Ovenell, 

Stephan  Hartrop.  Churchwardens. 


A  Terrier  referring  to  the  Vicarage. 

"A  true  Terrier  of  ye  Vicarage  and  Parsonage  of  Boxley,  1637  : 

The  Vicarage  house  with  a  stable,  one  outhowse. 

One  acre  more  or  less  in  gardens  and  closes. 

On  the  East,  bounding  to  ye  land  of  Sir  John  Clark,  now  in 
ye  occupation  of  Goodman  Tilden. 

On  the  West,  to  an  orchard  belonging  to  the  Parsonage. 

On  the  South,  to  a  small  piece  of  ground  belonging  to  the 
Parsonage,  a  small  stream  running  between  ye  Vicarage  and  it. 

On  ye  North,  to  a  footway  running  between  the  Vicarage  & 
the  Church. 

To  ye  Vicarage  all  Tyth  is  due  save  corns  which  is  not  dig'd 
with  ye  foote. 

To  ye  Parsonage  one  howse,  two  barnes,  one  stable,  one  Dove- 
house.  The  situation  of  the  Parsonage  bounding  to  ye  land  of 
ye  Vicarage  to  ye  East,  to  ye  West  to  ye  Kings  Streete,  to  ye 
North  to  ye  Green  of  Boxley,  to  ye  South  to  ye  land  of  William 
Tilden  and  Abel  Beeching. 

More,  one  parcel  of  ground  called  Parsons  Acre,  being  one 
Acre  more  or  less,  and  a  way  leading  to  it  by  ye  land  of  John 
Fletcher,  bounding  East  West  &  South  to  ye  lands  of  John 
Fletcher,  and  on  ye  North  to  a  wood  belonging  to  ye  Lower 
Grange. 


APPENDIX.  211 

One  small  parcel  more  of  ground  bounding  to  a  meddow  in  ye 
occupation  of  William  Tilden,  on  ye  East  to  ye  lands  of  Thos. 
Brooke,  on  ye  South  &  ye  West  to  ye  Kings  Streete,  to  ye  North 
to  ye  Vicarage  howse,  and  an  liowse  of  William  Tilden. 

One  other  small  parcel  of  land  being  a  quarter  of  an  Acre,  more 
or  lesse,  bounding  to  ye  Kings  highway  East,  to  ye  lands  of 
Richard  IVIatthews  South,  to  ye  lands  of  John  Fletcher  West,  to 
ye  land  of  Sir  Henry  Grimstone  North. 

More,  one  other  parcel  of  land  called  "  Black  Bush,"  bounding 
to  ye  lands  of  his  Majesty  East,  being  5  Acres,  to  ye  Kings 
Streete  South,  to  ye  lands  of  Sir  Henry  Grimstone  West,  and  to 
ye  Kings  Streete  North. 

More,  one  other  parcel  of  land  called  Court  Lands,  being  12 
Acres,  more  or  lesse,  bounding  to  ye  lands  of  John  Fletcher  East, 
ye  Kings  Streete  South,  ye  lands  of  Sir  Francis  Wiat  West,  ye 
Kings  Streete  North. 

More,  another  Parcel  of  land  called  Parsons  Heme,  being  16 
Acres  more  or  lesse,  bounding  to  ye  lands  of  Henry  Newman  East, 
to  ye  lands  of  Sir  Francis  Wiat  South,  ye  Kings  Streete  West,  ye 
land  of  Edward  Alcorne  North. 

More,  one  parcel  of  land  called  Parsons  Ruffe,  being  14  Acres 
more  or  lesse,  bounds  to  ye  land  of  Edward  Alcorne  East  and 
South,  and  North  to  ye  West  to  ye  lands  of  Henry  NeAvman, 
and  ye  heires  of  John  Mathewes. 

Our  Churchyard  is  sufficiently  wald  and  is  mainteined  by  the 
Parish. 

Haut  Wiat,  Vicar. 
Mathew  Hudsford,  Ch,  Warden. 
The  mark  of  William  Dodes,  Ch.  W. 

N.B. — It  seems  to  be  a  verbatim  copy  of  an  early  one  signed  by 
George  Case,  date  1613. 


212  APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX  K.      See  Page  102. 

A  Letter  from  Pope  Alexander  III.  to  Becket  enforcing  on 
Boxley  Abbey  the  payment  of  Tithes. 

"  Pervenit  quidem  ad  nos  quod  Monachi  de  Boxele  ecclesise 
Sanctse  Mariae,  in  cujus  parochia  commorantur,  decimas  ex  integro 
non  persolvant,  et  eas  secundum  canones  reddere  contradicant. 
Quapropter,  Prater  noster,  tibi  per  Apostolica  scripta  mandamus 
et  prsecipimus,  quod  praedictos  Monachos  ut  ipsas  decimas,  etiam 
de  illis  cultis,  in  quihus  olim  domus  constructae  fuerant,  prsefatae 
ecclesise  cum  omni  integritate  persolvant,  quas  priusquam  in 
eadem  ecclesice  morarentur,  solebant  persolvere,  sine  appellationis 
obstaculo,  nostra  auctoritate,  omni  cum  districtione  compellas. 
Sicut  enim  olim  de  pascuis  solvebantur  decimae,  ita  nunc  de 
eisdem  ad  frugum  fertilitatem  translatis  decimas  volumus  absque 
diminutione  persolvi." 

Vol.  v.,  p.  129. 


APPENDIX  L.     See  Page  102. 

Grant  of  Immunity  to  the  Cistercian  Order. 

(Egerton  Charters,  British  Museum,  No.376.      A.D.   1222  ) 

"  TJniversis  Christi  fidelibus  ad  quos  presens  scriptum  pervenerit. 

Eicardus  (de  "VVendover)  Dei  gratia  lioffensis  Episcopus  salutem  in 

Domino  sempiternum.     Ad  universitatis  vestre  noticiam  volumus 

pervenire,  nos  privilegium  Domini  Pape  Honorii  inspexisse  in  hec 

verba.      "  Honorius  Episcopus  Servus  Servorum  Dei  venerabilibus 

fratribus     S(tephano     Laugton)     Cantuariensi    Sancte     Romaine 

ecclesie  Cardinali,  et  (Waltero  Gray)  Eboracensi,  Archiepiscopis, 

et    ftorum    suifraganeis    ac    dilectis    filiis  aliis    ecclesiarum  prelatis 

per  Cantuar.  et  Eborac.  Provincias  constitutis,  salutem  et  Apostoli- 

cam  benedictionem.     Cum  Abbates  Cisterciensis  Ordinis  tempore 

Concilii    Generalis    ad    commonicionem   felicis    memorie,     I(nno- 

centii  III)  Pape  predecessoris  nostri  statuerint,  ut  de  cetero  fratres 


APPENDIX.  213 

ipsius  Ordinis  ne  occasione  privilegiorum  suorum  ecclesia  ulterius 
gravarentur  de  alienis  terris  et  ab  eo  tempore  acquirendis,  si 
eas,  propriis  manibus  aut  sumptibus  colerent,  deciraas  persolverent 
eccJesiis  quibus  rations  prediorum  antea  solvebantur  nisi  cum 
eisdem  ecclesiis  aliter  ducerent  componendum 

"  Nos,  quia  eorura  quieti  paterna  soUicitudine  providere  volp.ntes 
universitati  vestre  per  apostolica  scripta  firmiter  precipiendo,  man- 
damus, quatinus  Abbates  et  fratres  ejusdem  Ordinis  a  prestacione 
decimarum  tam  de  possessionibus  habitis  ante  Concilium  generale 
quam  de  novalibus,  sive  ante  sive  post  Concilium  acquisitis,  que 
propriis  manibus  aut  sumptibus  exculuut.  Kecnon  de  ortis  et 
virgultis,  pratis,  pascuis,  nemoribus,  moleiidiuis,  salinis,  et  pisca- 
toiibus  suis,  et  de  suorum  animalium  nutrinientis,  singuli  vestrum 
omnino  servetis  immunes,  contradictures  per  censurum  ecclesi- 
asticam  appellacione  preposita  compescendo. 

"  Datum  apud  Lateran.  vii.  kal.  Julii  pontificatus  nostri  anno 
sexto.  JMos  autem  ad  instanciam  Religiosorum  virorum  Abbatis 
et  Conventus  de  lioxle  buic  transcripto  ejusdem  autentici  quod 
cum  eodem  original]  diligentur  examinavimus.  Sigillum  nostrum 
apponi  fecimus  ad  cautelam.     Bene," 

Names  of  the  Lands  that  were  "Tithe-Free." 
"  Nomina  camporum  et  aliarum  rerum  in  Parochia  de  Boxle  de 
quibus   Abbas    et    Conventus    de    Boxle    decetero  liberi   erunt  et 
immunes  a  prestacione,  sive   solucione  oninium    decimarum   duni 
fuerint  in  manibus  eorum  propriis. 

"  In  primis,  supra  montem  de  Westfelde,  AVelpynge,  Chalnecroft, 
Pyndecroft,  Eastfelde,  Hnrcroft,  Pollehelle,  Helstedefelde,  Hosier 
land,  Sneggemede,  La  Brecbe,  Cuckowscrofte  Major,  Cukebake, 
Weeldeslade,  preter  parcellam  inferius  exceptam,  et  boscus  etiam 
vocatus  Monkedowne,  Charmaneswode,  Poureswode,  L  the  grove, 
et  Sneggrove,  item  Wymardesmede." 

(Registrum  W.  Woode  et  T.  Bourne,  Prior.  Eof!.  penes  Dec.  et 
Cap.  ib  ,  f.  20,  b.     See  Registrum  Bofense,  p.  185.) 


214  APPENDIX. 

APPENDIX   M. 
List  op  Eectoes   and  Yicaes,  with  thd  Dates  as  nearly 


AS    CAN    BE    FIXED 

Rectoes. 

Ausfridus. 

Galfridus. 

1240. 

Georgius  de  Eomanio. 

1283. 

Alliotti. 

1303. 

(Circ.)     Thomas  de  Cobeliam. 

1350. 

Johannes  de  Borbach. 

ViCAES. 

1387. 

Adam  Smith. 

1389. 

(Circ.)     Robert  Marre. 

1390. 

Nicholaus  Julian. 

1406- 

Peter  Beech,  or  Beuk. 

1449. 

William  SnelL 

1451. 

John  Munden. 

1489. 

John  Fletcher. 

1500. 

(Circ.)      Chrystopher  Danyell. 

1514. 

Thomas  Pereson,  or  Pearson. 

1528. 

Abbot  John. 

1538. 

(Circ.)      Robert  Jonson. 

John  Puyzant. 

1554. 

Richard  Adamson. 

1556. 

Roger  Jones. 

1566. 

Philip  Hilles. 

1589. 

George  Case. 

1632. 

Hawte  Wiat. 

1638. 

John  Balcauqual. 

1640. 

Walter  Balcanqual. 

1644. 

Thomas  Heynes  (intruded). 

APPENDIX.  215 

1678.  Humphrey  Lynde. 

1690.  John  Wyvell. 

1 704.  Thomas  Spratt. 

1720.  Edmund  Barrell. 

1765.  William  Mavkham. 

1771.  Brownlow  North. 

1774.  William  Nance. 

1780.  John  Benson. 

1804.  Samuel  Goodenough. 

1808.  Richard  Cockburn. 

1832.  John  Griffith. 

1853.  Frederick  J.  Richards^  the  present  Vicar. 


INDEX, 


Abbey,  Account  of  the,  27 — 67. 

founded  by  W.  d'Ypres,  30. 

its     probable     arrangement, 

32,  33. 

Church,  33,  3.5. 

Abbots,  the  earliest,  69,  n.  70. 

receive    "  benediction"    from 

Abp.  of  Canterbury,  68. 

put   in    the   stocks   by    Lady 

Wiat,  138. 

Abbot  John,  becomes  Vicar,  79,  89. 

Actus  Fontificum,  69. 

Adamson,  Richard,  Vicar,  89. 

Adrian  IV.,  Pope,  101. 

^thelric,  Bp.  of  Selsey,  15,  19,  196. 

Alien  Priories  temporarily  sup- 
pressed, 56. 

Alexander  III.,  Pope,  letters  to 
Becket,  102,  210. 

Alexander,  Wm. 's  Monument,  127. 

Allington  Castle  bought  by  Sir  H. 
Wiat,  9,  133. 

Alliote,  Rector,  85. 

Alnod  Cilt,  2,  199. 

Alston,  Peter,  Curate,  98. 

Altars  in  the  Abbey  Church,  34,  n, 

Anglo  Saxon  Chronicle,  15. 

Anne  Boleyn's  name  connected  with 
that  of  Sir  Th.  Wiat,  142. 

Ansfridus,  Rector,  35. 

Ascellinus,  Bp.  of  Rochester,  83. 


Archd.    of    Canterbury,     Hugo   de 
Mortimer,    buried    at    Boxley, 
115. 
Athawes  Monument,  123. 
Austen,  E.,  Esq.,   buys  the  Abbey 
House,  10. 

entries  in  Registers,  160,  &c. 

Aylesford,      Earl     of,      buys     the 

Abbey,  10. 
Balcanqual,  John,  Vicar,  93. 

Walter,  Vioar,  94. 

Baldwin,  Abp,,    quarrels  with  the 

Monks   73,  74. 
Barham,    Nicholas,    Esq.,    obtains 

gi-ant  of  Abbey  lands,  12. 
"Barnacles"    in   the    Wiat   arms, 

accounted  for,   136. 
Barrell,  Edmund,  Vicar,  96. 
Bassocke,  in  Registers,  156. 
Baxter,     Richard,     visits     Boxley 

Abbey,  150. 
Bayforde,  in  Registers,  153. 
Baynham,  W.'s,  death,  160. 
Beche,  John,  Abbot  of  Colchester, 

82. 
Beech,  or  Beuk,  Peter.  Vicar,  88. 
Becket  buried  by    Abbot   Walter, 

71. 
Benedictines,  29. 
Benson,  Dr.  John,  Vicar,  97. 
Best,  ]\Iajor  M.  G.,  buys  Abbey,  10. 


218 


INDEX. 


Best,  James  and  Hannah,  Monu- 
ment, 127. 

Major,  purchases  Park  House, 

Boxley,  12. 

restores  the  Abbey   Granary, 

36,  n. 

Family  Memorial,  East  Win- 
dow, 112. 

Binbury  Court,  owned  by  Sir  Henry 
Cutte,  5 

Birch,  W.  do  Gray,  his  "Domes- 
day Book,"  23,  n. 

Bishop's  head  over  West  Doorway, 
110. 

Bishop  of  Baieux,  lands  of,  1. 

Blue  Bell  Hill,  27. 

Boarley,  formerly  Burleghe,  37. 

Borbach,  Johannes,  Rector,  87. 

Bosville,  T.,  Esq.,  married  Eliz. 
Wyat,  10. 

Frances,     married     Sir     T. 

Selyard,  10. 

Elizabeth,    married    Sir    R. 

Marsham,  11  n. 

Bourchier,  Sir  Thomas,  his  history  ; 

buried  in  the  Abbey,  35. 
Bourne,  Robert  de,    buried  in  the 

Abbey,  34,  n. 
Boxley,  one  of  Odo's  Manors,  17. 
Parish,  bounds  of,  2. 

Abbey,       founded      by      W. 

d'Ypres,   30. 

lands  broken  up  at  Dis- 
solution of  the  Monastery,  8. 

its  connection  with  Chr. 

Ch.,  Canterbury,  36. 

said  to  be  "Exempt, "55, 

207. 

obtained  by  exchange  by 

Sir  Thos.  Wiat,  9,  143. 


Boxley  Abbey  forfeited  by  his  son's 

rebellion,  9,  145. 
restored     by     Elizabeth 

to  the  widow,  10,  146. 
Bradshaw,    Adam,    tears    down    a 

paper      denouncing      Luther, 

54,  80,  207. 
Brasses  in  the  Church,  115,  116. 
Brent  family  own  Allington,  133-4. 
Bridgett's     "  Blunders     and     For- 
geries," 65-66. 
Brockman,  Rev.  Tatton,  Memorial 

Window,  113. 

Mrs.,  114. 

Brock,  G.  P.  Loftus,  Esq.,  110,  n. 

Broche,  or  Broke,  23,  195. 

Bruers   (or   Brewers)   owned    Park 

House,  Maidstone,  13. 

in  Registers,  157,  &c. 

Burbage,   in   Registers,    154-5,  &c. 
Richard,  Shakespeare's  friend, 

(?)  155,  n. 
Burleghe  family  grant  Lands,  37. 
Burton,    Edward,    his  Monument, 

131. 
Burvill,  George,  Curate,  98. 

Rev.  G.,  his  Monument,  124. 

John,  his  Monument,  124. 

Cade,  Jack,  his  Insurrection,  24. 
Calder,    Sir  H.,    built  the  present 

(Maidstone)  Park  House,  13. 

Campeggio,  Cardinal,  visits  the 
Abbey,  43. 

Case,  George,  Vicar,  90  ;  in  Regis- 
ters, 159,  &c. 

Thomas,  92,  n. 

"Catholic  Emancipation"  Bill, 
Meeting  at  Penenden,  26. 

Chambers,  JefTray,  his  letter  to 
Crumwell,  60. 


INDEX. 


219 


Chamnes  (or  Champneys),  in  Eegis- 

ters,  157,  &c. 
Champneys,    Family    Monuments, 

121-2. 
Chantries  endowed  by  Abbey,   42. 
Chapel  of  S .  Mary  in  Parish  Church 

108. 
Charlton  Family  Monuments,  126. 
Church,  The,  106—111. 
not  mentioned   in    '  *  Domes- 
day," 106. 

Ales,  110,  n. 

Cistercians,  the  origin  of,  29. 
City  of  London,  a  Charter  gi-anted 

by  Edward  II.,  43,  200. 
Clairvaux  Abbey  supplies  Monks  to 

Boxley,  30. 
Clergy  of  Boxley,  83—99. 
Cobeham,      Stephen     de,     obtains 

AUington  Castle,  133. 

Thomas  de.  Rector,  86. 

Cockburn,  Dr.  Richard,    Vicar,  99. 

Colchester,  J.  Beech  Abbot  of,  82. 

Conscience  Money,  108. 

Coptre,  13. 

CornhuU,  Henry  de,  85. 

Corpus      Christi,     Fraternity      of, 

Maidstone  Records,  79. 
Coutance,  Geoffrey,  Bp.  of,  19. 
Covert,  Wm.,  at  Vinters,  112. 
Cressicke,  in  Eegisters,  156. 
Crispe,  Thos.,  of  Quex,  117,  151. 
Crumwell  sends  for  the  Abbot,  59. 
Curates  in  18th  Century,  98. 
Cutte,  Dr.,  Queen  Mary  gives  him 

Vinters,  5,  160. 

Sir  H.,  at  Binbury,  160. 

Chapel,  at  Thornham,  5,  n. 

Danyell,  Christopher,  Vicar,  88, 
D' Acres,  21,  196. 


De  Clare,  Richard,  21,  196. 

De  Crevequer,  Haimo,  21,  197. 

De  Curva-Spina,  Ralf.,  22. 

De   Domini,    Antonio,     Master    of 

the  Savoy,  93. 
De  Hougham  family  owned  Wever- 

ing,  6. 
De  Montfort,  Hugo,  22,  196. 
D'Ypies,  W.,   founded  the  Abbey, 

29,  30,  68. 
Dedication,  Feast  of  the,  131-2. 
Denton,  23,  196. 
Detling,  22,  195  n. 
Dionysius,  Abbot,  74. 
Dobbs,  Abbot  John,  his  surrender, 

81,  82. 
"Domesday,"    Boxley    mentioned 

in,  1,  but  no  Church,  106. 
"Domesday     Book,"    its    design, 

106,  n. 
Dunkyn,  in  Registers,  153,  5. 
Eades,  Thomas,  Curate,  98. 
Eadmer,    Historian,    a     Monk    of 

Canterbury,  36. 
his  account  of  the  Penendeu 

Trial,  15  n,  192. 
Earl  of  Kent,  Odo,  the,  21,  196. 
Eastchurch,    in   Sheppey,    granted 

to  the  Abbey,  38. 
Edward  II.  visited  the  Abbey,  43. 
Elizabeth  of  York   sends   offerings 

to  Boxley,  52. 
Erasnnis  denounces  the  trickery  and 

immorality  of  the  Monks,  64. 
Erith,  23,  195. 

Lesnes  Abbey,  44. 

Ernostus,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  15, 

20,  21,  196. 
Ernulph's    History   of    the    Trial, 

15,  18,  193—198. 


220 


INDEX. 


Estria,  Henry  de,  Prior  of  Chr.  Cli., 

Canterbury,  38. 
Eugcnius  III.,  Pope,  70. 
Eynsford,  23,  195. 
"Farthings,"   a   hamlet   near   the 

Abbey,     37  ;    a    market    held 

there,  14. 
Farringdon,  Hugh,  of  Reading,  82. 
Faversham,  Abbot  of,  69,  72. 
Fawkham,  23,  195. 
Finch,   Sir  John  (Lord  Fordwich), 

married  Eleanor  Wiat,  147. 

his  Monument,  148. 

Clarendon's    and     Falkland's 

opinion  of  him,  148-9. 

SirThos.,  147. 

Fitz-Gilbert,  Richard,  21. 

Ivo,  Herbert,  21,  196. 

Fletcher,  John,  Vicar,  83. 

in  Registers,  153. 

Folkestone,  23,  196. 
Forteschue,  in  Registers,  159. 
Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  15. 
Fremingham,      Sir     John,      owns 

Vinters,  4  ;  endows  a  Chantry 

in  the  Abbey,  34. 
Galfridus,  Rector,  85. 
Galilee  Porch  (?),  109,  110.    [36,  n. 
Garendon,  a  Cistercian  Abbey  at, 
Gascony,  French  claim  to,  78. 
Geary,  Sir  Wm.,  at  Court  Lodge, 

105. 
Geoffrey   de  Mowbery  as  Judge  at 

the  Penenden  Trial,  19. 
Gervase,  the  Historian,  a  Monk  of 

Canterbury,  36. 
Glastonbury,        Abbot        Whiting 

burned,  82. 
Goldwell,  Thomas,  Prior  of  Canter- 
bury, pensioned,  82. 


Goodenough,  Dr.  S.,  Vicar,  97. 
"Good    Parson,    the,"    T.    Cobe- 

ham,  86. 
Grain,  Isle  of,  23,  195. 
Griffith,  Dr.  John,  Vicar,  99. 
Grove  Green  Chapel  built  by  James 

.Whatman,  Esq.,  7. 
Grumbald,  St.  ;  his  history,  50. 
Grimeston,  Sir  Henry  ;  his  tomb- 
stone, 120. 
Gwinne,  Ellis,  Curate,   his    death, 

160. 
Gyles,  John,  Curate,  95,  98. 
Hailing,  a  Chantry  endowed  there, 

42. 
Hasted's  Visit  to  the  Abbey,  31. 
Harple,  formerly  Harpole,  37. 
Hartroppe,  in  Registers,  160,  &c. 
Harrow,  23,  195. 
Haselwood,  in  Registers,  158. 
Hawte  family  owned  Wevering,  6. 

in  Registers,  159,  &c. 

Hayes,  23. 

Haymes,      or     Heynes,      Thomas, 

Vicar,  94. 
Henley,   Robert,    Esq.,    afterwards 

Baron  Ongley,  5. 
Henry  I.  grants  Boxley  Church  to 

Rochester  Priory,  83. 

benefactor  to  Church,  107,  n. 

III.  grants  a  Market   to   the 

Abbey,  3,  37.  [52. 

VII.  sends  offerings  to  Boxley, 

VIII.  calls  for  a  Loan,  54. 

visits  AUington  Castle^ 

138. 
High  Altar,  109. 
Hilles,    Philip,     Vicar,     90  ;     his 

death,  158. 
Hockers,  2. 


INDEX. 


221 


Hoker,  John,  his  account  of  the 
exposure  of  the  Rood  of  Grace, 
62,  205. 

Honorms  III.,  Pope.  102. 

Hook's  (Dr.)  opinion  of  Monas- 
teries, 29,  66. 

Horsmonden,  a  Chantry  endowed 
there,  42. 

Hospitallers  tithe  free,  101. 

Howard,  Henry,  E.  of  Surrey,  1-15. 

Hugo  Cundavena,  Count  of  St. 
Pol  ;  his  complaint  against 
the  Abbey,  44.  [72. 

Hugo  de  Grenoble,  Bp.  of  Lincoln, 

Hurste,  in  Registers,  153,  154. 

Images   lights  bequeathed  to,  108. 

Isle  of  Grain,  23,  195. 

Isley,  Sir  Henry,  owns  Vinter's,  4. 

Innocent  III.,  Pope,  102. 

Jeffre,  David,  Presbiter,  in  Regis- 
ters, 153.  [77,  n. 

John,  Abbot,  severe  on  the  Monks, 

negociates    with    Philip 

II.  of  France   about  Gascoiiy, 

becomes  Vicar  of  Bo.xley, 

79. 
Jones,  Roger,  Vicar,  89. 
Jonson,  Robert,  Vicar,  89. 
Julian,  Nicholaus,  Vicar,  88. 
Kumba,  Alexander,  grants  lands  to 

the  Abbey,  37. 
Kember,  John,  buried  in  the  Abbey 

Church,  35. 
King's  head  on  West  door,  110. 
Knelier,  Sir  G.  ;  his  portrait  of  Sir 

Edwin  Wiat,  [12. 

Knevett  family  owned   "  le  Park," 
Lambeth  Registers,    lost,    prior  to 

Abp.  Peckham,  85,  n. 


Lambert,  Abbot,  69. 

Lanfranc,  Abp.   of  Canterbury,  16, 

193,  &c. 

divides  the  Chapter  Lands,  73. 

Langport,  23,  195. 

Legacies  to  the  Church,  107,  108. 

Legacy,  singular  one,  to  the  Vicar  ; 

89,  n.  [IL,  43. 

Leeds  Castle  attacked  by   Edward 
Leigh  ton,  Abp.,  of  Glasgow,  95. 
Lesnes  Abbey  (Erith),  44. 
Leveland,  Sir  Nathanael  de,  72. 
Lidsing,  2. 

Lights  bequeathed  for  images,  108. 
Lloyd,  John,  Curate,  98. 
Loth,  Margerie,  grants  land,  37. 
Lushington  family  own  Park  House, 

Maidstone,  13. 

family  Monuments,  128—130. 

Lychnoscope,  100. 

Lyminge,  22,  195. 

Lynde,  Humphrey,  Vicar,  94. 

Lytchgate,  111. 

Mabisden,  in  Registers,  154. 

Malmaynes,     a     family    living    at 

Stoke-at-Hoo,  39. 
Manor,  meaning  and  use  of  the,  2, 
Manor     of     Boxley     granted     by 

Richard  I.  to  the  Abbey,  37. 
Market  granted  by  Henry  III.,  37. 
Markham,  Dr.  W.,  Vicar,  96. 
Marriot,  John,  Curate,  98. 
Marre,  Robert,  Vicar,  87. 
Mason,  Stephen,   owned  Wevering 

Manor,   and   bequeathed  it  to 

Vinters'Co.,  7.  ;  his  Will,  190. 
Maycott,  or  Mackworth,  Sir  Cava- 

liero,  at  Vinters,  5,  112. 
Mayoralty  of  London,  43,  200. 
Maze,  Sir  T.  Wiat's  drawing  of,  141. 


222 


INDEX. 


Mercer,    Mrs.    M.    F.,     Memorial 

Window,  113. 
Mitchell,  family  Monument,  120. 
Monasteries,  history  of,  28. 

their  usefulness,  29. 

suppressed,  57,  58. 

Monks  Risborough,  23,  195. 
Montagu,     Matthew,     admirer    of 

G.  Sandys,  125. 
Monuments,   113—132. 
Mortimer,  Hugo  de,  Arehd.  of  Can- 
terbury,    buried     in      Boxley 

Church,  115. 
Mortlake,  23,  195. 
Mote  Pictures,  135-6. 
Munden,  John,  Vicar,  88. 
Nance,  Wm.,  Vicar,  97. 
Newenden,  92,  195. 
Newnham,  or  Newenham,  belonged 

to  Odo,  Bp.  of  Baieux,  7. 
granted  by  W.  d'Ypres  to  the 

Abbey,  8. 
granted   by  Henry   VIII.    to 

Sir  T.  Wiat,  8. 
granted   by   Elizabeth   to    J. 

Astley,  8. 
passed  to  Sir  Norton  Knatch- 

buU,  8. 

sold  to  Sir  J.  Banks,  8. 

passed  to  Lord  Aylesford,  8. 

sold  to  J.  Whatman,  Esq. ,  8 . 

Nigellus,  the  satirical  Poet,  exposes 

the  immorality  and  trickery  of 

the  Monks,  53. 
North,  Dr.  Brownlow,  A'^icar,  97. 
Odo,  Bp.  of  Baieux,  16,  21,  22,  195. 
Odo's  lands,  in  "Domesday,"  1. 
"  Oiconomici,"   Church  -  Wardens, 

152,  n.  [19,  n. 

(Egelric,     mistake     for    (Ethelric, 


Ongley,     Sir     Samuel,     living     at 

Vinters,  5,  112. 

in  Registers,  157,  &c. 

Orpington,  23,  195.  [85. 

Ottoboni,  Cardinal,   Papal  Legate, 
Overhelle  Manor,  13. 
Parish,  account  of,  1 — 13. 
Park  House,  two  so-called,  8. 

Boxley,  11. 

Maidstone,  12,  13. 

Partridge,  Nicholas,  letter  from,  63. 
Parsons,  John,  Will  of,  30,  n. 

Robert,  Curate,  98. 

Pascal  II.,  Pope,  on  Abbey  Lands, 

101. 
Pearson,  Thomas,  Vicar,  89. 
Pearson,    Bp.,    writes    epitaph    of 

Walter  Balcanqual,  93. 
Penchester,    Sir   Stephen,    fortifies 

Allington  Castle,  133. 
Penenden  Heath,  3,  14,  25,  193. 

date  of  the  Trial,  15, 198. 

Penglose,  Thomas,  presents  to  the 

Vicarage,  80. 
Pension  to  Vicar,  100,  101,  n. 
Penshurst,  23,  199. 
Peter,      Bishop,     of     Lichfield    or 

Chester,  15. 
Peterson,  William,  letter  from,  63. 
Philips,   Walter,  Prior  of  Roches- 
ter, becomes  Dean,  82. 
Pictures   of    Wiat   family    at    the 

Mote,  136. 
Pilgrim's  Road,  30. 
Pilgrimages  to  the   Shrine   of  St. 

Thomas,  66. 
Piscina,  109. 

Population  of  the  Parish,  13. 
Porch  at  West  door,  110,  111 .  [204. 
Pounds,  W.,  refractory  Monk,  70, 


INDEX. 


223 


Preston,  23,  199. 
Puyzant,  John,  Vicar,  89. 
Rabbits  formerly  paid  as  tihes   to 

the  Vicar,  100,  n. 
Rashleigh  Monuments,  124.        [82. 
Reading,  H.  Farringdon,  Abbot  of 
Rectors,  83—87. 

earlier  ones  foreigners,  84. 

Registers,   Church,    transcribed  by 

George  Case,  Vicar,  91 — 152. 
Reculver,  22,  195. 
Reformatory,  the  Abbey  used  as,  45. 
Richards,  Frederick  J.,  Vicar,  99. 
Richards,    G.    P.,    Memorial    AVin- 

dow,  112. 

Mrs.  F.   E., ,   113. 

Mrs.   D.  F., ,   114. 

Richard  (of  Wendover),   Bishop  of 

Rochester,  102. 

(of  Dover),  Abp.,  71. 

Richard  I.  confers  the  Manor  of 
Bo.xley  on  the  Abbey,  2,  37. 

his  prison  discovered  by 

an  Abbot  of  Boxley,  75,  76. 

Ill  ,  his  treatment  of  Sir  H. 

Wiat,  134-5. 

Richborough,  23,  195. 

Richmond,  Archdeaconry  of,  con- 
troversy about,  75. 

Robertsbridge  ;  its  origin,  41. 

Robert,  Abbot,  discovers  Richard's 
prison,  76. 

Robertson,  James  Craigie  (Histo- 
rian), Curate,  99. 

Rochester  Bishopric,  appointment 
with  Abp.  of  Canterbury,  20,  n. 

Rochester,  W.  Philips,  Prior  of,  82. 

Romney,  Earl  of,  Lord  of  the 
Manor,  13. 

buys  Abbey  House,  10. 


Romney,  Earl  of,  succeeds  to  the 

Abbey  lands,  101. 
Romanio,  Gregorius  de.  Rector,  85. 
Romanists'  Explanation  &  Defence 

of  the  Rood  of  Grace,  64. 
Rood  of  Grace  ;  its  history,  48 — 50. 
Russell,  Sir  John,  and  the  Romish 

Embassy,  140. 
Ruckinge,  23,  195. 
Rumbald,  St.  (or  Grumbald),  46. 
Saltwood,  23,  195. 
Sandhurst,  23,  195. 
Sandwich,  22,  195. 
Sandys,  George,  the  Poet,   149  ;  at 
Boxley,    91  ;    his    Monument, 
125  ;  his  Summer-house,  187. 

Sir  Samuel,  47. 

Say,  Henry  Morgan,  Curate,  98. 

John,  Cur'ctte,  98. 

Scapeya,  Isle  of  Sheppey,  38. 
Scheefe,  in  Registers,  153-5. 
Schiregemot  held  at  Penenden,  16. 
Surrey,     E.     of,     imprisoned     and 

beheaded,  145. 
S^ebyrde,   Richard,  singular  legacy 

to  the  Vicar,  89,  n. 
Selyai'd,  Sir  Thos.,  mari'ied  Frances 

Bosville,  10. 
Sharpe,  Joseph,  Curate,  98. 
Shelving  family  at  Wevering,  7. 
Sheppey,    grants   in    the    Isle   of, 
38. 

Richard,  Abbot,  79. 

Smith,  Adam,  Vicar,  87. 
Snell,  William,  Vicar,  88,  116. 
Southwell,    Robert,     his   letter    to 
Crumwell,  61. 

pleads   for   Abbot   John 

Dobbs,  81. 
Spratt,  Dr.  Thomas,  Vicar,  95. 


224 


INDEX. 


Spratt,  Archdeacon,  enlarges  the 
Vicarage,   104. 

St.  Alban's  Abbey,  Lanfranc's 
liberality  to,  24. 

St.  Andrew's  little  finger,  46. 

St.  Andrew's  Chapel,  30,  34. 

had  its  Chaplain,  30. 

Patron  of  Pilgrims,  30,  n. 

St.  Augustine's  Abbey,  70.       [108. 

St.  Christopher,  lights  to  image  of, 

St.  Mary,  Chapel  of,  in  the  Parish 
Church,  108. 

St.  Thomas,  of  Canterbury  ;  his 
shrine,  46. 

St.  Martin's  Church  ;  Sir  J.  Finch's 
Monument,  148. 

Steeple  of  Abbey  Church,  33,  n. 

St.  Pol,  Count  of,  Cundavena,  44. 

Stephen  of  Blois,  30. 

Stigand  deposed  from  Primacy,  15. 

Stoke-at-Hoo  restored  to  Roches- 
ter, 23.  [39. 

granted    to   the  Abbey, 

Sufifolk,  Edmund,  Earl  of,  conveyed 
to  the  Tower,  139. 

Sylvester,  Abbot  of  St.  Augus- 
tine's, 69,  70,  n. 

Synod  of  Westminster,  71. 

Taillebois,  Ivo,  22,  195. 

Taylor,  Sir  T.,  at  Park  House,  13. 

Terriers  of  Rectors  and  Vicars,  100. 
208,  &c. 

Templars'  lands  tithe  free,  101. 

Tomyow,  Richard,  his  brass,  116. 

Theobald,  Abp.,  confirms  three 
Abbots,   69. 

Thomas,  Abbot,  69,  70. 

Thomas,  Christopher,  Curate,  98. 

Throwley,  Alien  Priory,  72. 

Tilmanstone,  23,  198. 


Tithes  of  Boxley  granted  to  the 
Abbey  by  Henry  I.,  107. 

Tithe-free  lands,  101,  102.        [195. 

Tonbridge,  de  Clare,  Lord  of,  21, 

Tower,  the,  of  the  Church,  109,  110. 

Tufton,  Sir  Wm.,  buys  Vinters,  5. 

Sir  Wm.,  112. 

Sir  Charles,  112. 

Turkey  Mills,  3. 

Turold,  of  Rochester,  22,  195. 

Tybold,  in  Registers,  156,  &c. 

Tyler,  Wat,  insurrection,  24.   [105. 

Vicarage  House,  its  history,  103 — 

Vicarial  Income,  100. 

Vicars,  87—99  ;  list  of,  214. 

AMcarye,  in  Registers,  156,  &c. 

"Vintners,"  coiruption    from 
"  Wine-tonners,"  7. 

Walpole,  Horace,  doubts  the  Cat 
story,  134. 

Walsingham,  our  Lady  of,  64. 

Walter,  Abbot,  69,  70.  [75 

Abp.  Hubert,  dies  at  Tenham, 

Wareland,  a  district  of  the 
Parish,  37.  [43. 

Warham,  Abp.,  at  Boxley  Abbey, 

pleads   for   the   Abbot, 

58,  81,  208.  [ners,  6. 

Wevering  Manor,  why  called  Vint- 

Chapel  disappeared,  7. 

West  Door,  the,  110. 

Westminster,  Synod  of,  71. 

Whatman,  James,  Esq.,  buys 
Vinters,  5  ;  buys  j^^'^'^  of 
Wevering  Manor,  7  ;  builds 
a  Chapel  at  Gi'ove  Green,  7. 

Wherwell  Nunnery  destroyed,  30. 

White  Monks,  why  so  called   29 . 

White,  Daniel,  Esq.,  bought  Vin- 
ters, 5,  112. 


INDEX. 


225 


Whiting,  John,  Abbot  of  Glaston- 
bury, 82. 

Wiats,  The,  13.3—151. 

WiatMSS.,  134. 

Sir  Henry,  and  the  Cat,  134  ; 

buys  Allington  Castle,  133  ; 
Knighted  by  Henry  VIII., 
137  ;  Ewerer  at  Anne  Boleyn's 
marriage  banquet,  137  ;  con- 
ducts  Suffolk   to    the   Tower, 

139  ;  mentioned  on  Sir  Henry 
Lee's  monument  at  Quarren- 
don,  138. 

Sir  Thos.   (Elder),    the    Poet, 

140  ;  joins  the  Embassy  to 
Rome,  140  ;  the  incident  of 
the  Maze,  141  ;  obtains  the 
Abbey  from    Henry  VIII.,  9, 

143  ;  attacked  by  a  young  lion, 

144  ;  charged  by  Bp.  Bonner 
of  treason,  142  ;  dies  at  Sher- 
bourne,  143  ;  seised  of  several 
Manors,    144. 

Sir  Thos.  (the  Younger)  ;  his 

friendship  with  the  Earl  of 
Surrey,  145  ;  his  Insurrection, 
4,  10.  25,  144;  his  death,  146. 

George,  restored  by  Elizabeth, 

18,  146. 

Sir  Francis,  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, 10,  147. 


Wiat,  Elizabeth,  married  to  T.  Bos- 
ville,  Esq.,  10. 

Jane,  widow  of  Sir   Thomas 

(the  Younger),  recovers  the 
Abbey,  10. 

Katherine,  her  Epitaph,  162. 

Edwin,  Serjeant-at-Law,  151  ; 

claimed  and  obtained  the 
Abbey  from  his  aunt.  Lady 
Selyard,  10  ;  his  Monument, 
117—119. 

Eleanor,    married    Sir    John 

Finch,  afterwards  Lord  Ford- 
wich,  147  ;  her  Epitaph,  167. 

name     changed     to     Wyat, 

150. 

Wyat,  Henry,   150.  ^ 

Hawte,  Vicar,  92,  147.  " 

William   the   Conqueror  summons 

the  meeting  at  Penenden,  16. 
Wills,  change  in  the  style,  89,  90. 
Windows,  112—115. 
"Wine    Tonners"    corrupted   into 

"  Vintners,"  7,  n. 
Witthersham,  23. 
Wriothesley,  Lord,  his  letter  about 

Boxley,  58,  n. 
Wyvell,  John,  Vicar,  95. 
Zurick  letters    about  the  Rood   of 

Grace,  63. 


Dickinson,  Printer,  Higli  Street.  Miudstonc. 


Ci 


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